Mikey Pizano

August 7, 2008

2008-08-07T17:19:00.000-04:00

Well, I got the Clie today! I am pretty happy that I got it as this as my dream PDA. I have always wanted a PDA like this! I will take some pictures of the new Clie soon. I am still gettibg use to the keyboard. I will need to get a new battery for it though I think. That will cost me around 20 bucks.

Supper today was chicken Alfredo. It came out really good this time too. We made it a little different by doing the chicken separate. The weather was pretty nice today and we got some rain. There was some loud thunder that shocked me too. Tomorrow will be 71 and PM thunderstorms. I got the painting done and made 50 bucks!!!

Redirect...

2008-04-17T17:42:00.002-04:00

Please go to the new site:
www.mikeypizano.110mb.com

Mikey Pizano

April 16, 2008

2008-04-16T20:10:00.001-04:00

Went a few places today. My mom got a new mouse and I took the old one. She got a VX revolution like me and my dad have. The one she had before is a MX600 series. I am not sure of the number though but I think its 630. Its a laser mouse.

I didn't play Oblivion much today. I am getting a little sick of playing games for the time being. I am taking a break. I have some other stuff to work on. I have the new site to code and I want to work on that C++ game again but I am going to start over and make a funny game instead of a serious one.

I had hot dogs for dinner today. These were just plain ones that weren't spicy this time. They were still good though. I wanted the ones with cheese inside but they didn't have them at store. The weather was really nice today at 66. It is going to be in the 70s for the next 3 days too!

April15, 2008

2008-04-15T20:15:00.000-04:00

Well here is some good news. I did the update on the T20 last night and now Pidgin is working fine. This means that the ThinkPad is a lot more useful now. I did go back to my Acer last night so I could have a bit faster computer for Youtube since the Vaio stutters.

I also played a lot of Oblivion today. I have been gathering stuff to sell and make potions with so I can raise up my money. I have not really been doing much on the lines of quests though since I am just playing to kill time mostly.

The weather was really nice today compared to yesterday. It was 55 and very sunny today. It is going to be 64 and sunny tomorrow too. Supper today was boneless pork chops breaded and fried, with green bean casserole. I like mine with extra onions but that ends up getting me back later.

April 14, 2008

2008-04-14T20:17:00.000-04:00

This is day 2 of using Linux 100 percent. I am, however, having a small problem with Pidgin on my ThinkPad. It keeps running slow. I don't know why and I may end up doing the upgrade to 8.04 early and see if that helps.

I love playing PS3 in my room but the one annoying thing is that I have to switch to a laptop since I use the Vaio with the TV for the monitor. It will be nice when I get the mini and get that loud Vaio out of my room.

Supper was chicken fingers and French fries today. The temperature was a little cold again. It is going to be 56 again tomorrow though. I can't wait until it is a steady 60+ since thats means its close to summer and the grass needs to be cut and I get money!

April 13, 2008

2008-04-13T17:03:00.001-04:00

I have some BIG announcements I would like to make. These announcements may shock you so I want to make sure you are all sitting down!

The first is a pretty big one but probably the smallest. I installed Ubuntu on my T20 again. This is going to kick off what I like to call Phase 1 of the master plan. This, along with the Vaio running Ubuntu, make up my transition away form Windows.

The Acer will be followed up once I am confident that I do not need Windows XP at all anymore. This is also being held off because of the annoying WiFi problems that I always have with it. It is undecided when I will actually switch the Acer to Ubuntu.

Phase 2 is a big one. I am getting an Averatec 1020 from a very good friend. (If your reading this, you know who you are!) I do not know when he will be sending it out so thus I am unsure when I will get it. This will be a Ubuntu only computer as I have checked around and it will support it 100%. Be on the look out for a review soon.

Phase 3 is the HUGE shocker. I was talking with my good friend last night and he said I may be getting an older Mac Mini. Its a core duo model with 1.25GB of RAM. Now its a long story so I will tell you the short version. When he gets his new Mac Pro, he will go down the hand me down ladder to the relative who has the old Mac Mini. He is going to try to get the Mini for me.

Phase 3.5 will be taking down the Vaio completely. This will leave only the Mac Mini, Averatec 1020, Acer and T20 as my available computers. Phase 3.5.5 will be narrowing it down to Acer, Mini, and Averatec as the only set up computers with possibly removing the Acer from the setup.

Of course everyone reading this is probably stunned by now. I want to thank my good friend for trying to convert me to Apple. I know I have hated on Apple in the past but I have always wanted to try OS X. I never hated the software, just that the hardware is usually way out of my range.

This is a less shocking announcement but still important. I will be going BACK to 110MB hosting. The early readers of my site will remember that I left because they had decided to take away MySQL and I had a small forum at the time. Well now I am going back since I miss the freedom that a site allows me. I will be coding this completely different that will make adding new pages a breeze for me.

Now, like the 2 computers coming soon. I have no idea when this will actually go through fully. For the time being, all entries will be posted here. When I am finished with the site, you will see a post here that says its ready and to hop over to the new page. Once again, until I post a entry saying that the blog has moved, it will be here.

I really wanted to keep the 2 computers under wraps until I got each one but I just had to announce it today with the other announcements. I know that me getting an Apple product is a real surprise. It came as a shock to even me.

Supper today was meatloaf for a change. I haven't had it in a pretty long time. It was really good today. My dad makes it with some ham and a hard boiled egg in the center. The weather was kind of chilly today and will be 47 again tomorrow.

I want to end todays entry with a special thank you to my very good friend who is giving me the computers.

April 12, 2008

2008-04-12T20:14:00.001-04:00

Today was a fun day. We spent the day out shopping. It was so nice today too. It is going to be cold tomorrow though and they say we may even see some snow showers on Monday. I am pretty tired today. I didn't get to play Oblivion though.

Supper today was chicken wings and pizza from Pizza Perfect. They have some of the best food really. The wings are different then most. The mild are great and have very little burn. The pizza is "Old Forge" style. This is a local thing though. Its really crispy on the bottom and has white cheddar cheese on it.

April 11, 2008

2008-04-11T20:00:00.000-04:00

Well, I didn't do much today but I am addicted to Oblivion again for sure. I started to gather ingredients to make potions to sell for some gold so I can raise up my money and I have to say, I enjoy doing this as much as just playing the game. Its good that you pretty much wonder endlessly and explore the caves you find. You really have to love games that don't have a linear order to them.

The weather today was warm and we didn't get that rain until later in the day. No thunder at all! I am kind of disappointed since I wanted a nice storm for a change. The grass is starting to grow and may need a cutting by next weekend I hope. Its going to be 66 tomorrow! We had tacos for supper today, nothing fancy.

April 9, 2008

2008-04-10T20:11:00.001-04:00

I started to play Oblivion again. This is going to keep me busy now. I still need to finish Disgaea and Crisis Core though. I will end up going back to them again soon though. I like to switch off sometimes so I can have something different to play. They are all different types of games.

The weather was pretty warm again today. We are going to have it in the 60s again tomorrow with thunder showers! Got to love that! The one thing we don't need more of is rain! Supper today was chicken picatta from Sams club my Michael Anglos.

April 8, 2008

2008-04-09T19:59:00.001-04:00

Today was a great day. I got a new hair cut finally. I hate having long thick hair! It is really frustrating in the summer. I even got Adblock Plus to work on Firefox 3!!! Also picked up a pair of sandals too since they were cheap. Sent out my iPaq again so its on its way to Florida again.

I also have some really good news. I am back on Linux again. Now this is a permanent Linux computer. I took my old Vaio, which was the server before I took it down, and tossed Ubuntu on it. The best thing is it can run all the fun desktop effects! I am using my TV as an LCD.

I saw the DualShock3 controller at Wal-Mart today for 50 bucks. I was going to buy it but I don't need a second controller yet and I would rather save the 50 bucks for something more useful. The only thing it really adds is rumble anyway.

The weather was beautiful today! It was in the 60s again. It's going to be 65 tomorrow! I has steak on the grill and a salad today. I had some steak dust on mine. Funny the one thing the stuff is for, we have never used it on till now.

April 8, 2008

2008-04-08T20:22:00.000-04:00

Well, I have some good news. My TV came back and I have the Vaio hooked up now. The only problem is the screen resolutions don’t want to line up right. I will have to mess with it later on. The best thing is that I can play PS3 in my room now.

The weather was warm enough that I am wearing shorts and a t-shirt tonight. My allergies seem to be acting up. The pollen count is high today. It is going to be 60 again tomorrow. I had Salisbury steak patty with steak dust and a baked potato for supper.

April 7, 2008

2008-04-07T20:33:00.000-04:00

Well, this is good. The box came so I can send the iPaq out yet again. I really hope that they actually fix it this time. I have been waiting a long time now. If they don't fix it, I will just have to call them up and complain I guess…

Supper today was chicken stew. The way it was made was with tomato sauce. I am not to sure if this is normal or not. The weather was pretty nice today and will be again tomorrow. Its going to be 58 tomorrow. Now that my RC car is out of order it gets nice huh?

April 6, 2008

2008-04-06T20:44:00.001-04:00

I didn't do what I had planned today with the RC car. I was going to but I just didn't feel like it. I also decided to wait on that Apple rant for some time. I just am not in much mood to rant today. It will come soon though. I went to Best Buy and asked about my TV. They said its on the way back to the store!

Supper was pasta today. Pasta is nothing really special but good none the less right? The temperature will be 51 again tomorrow. This means that the grass will start growing again soon and I can make some money again! RC doesn't pay for itself!

April 5, 2008

2008-04-05T19:54:00.001-04:00

Well today was a fun day. We went to go pick up two new chinchillas. The trip was a short one really at only 90 minutes each way. Needless to say this is a LONG entry today. Enjoy the rant. This entry will have an update on the chinchilla outcome at the END.

One thing that annoyed me lately is the Adblock Plus doesn't work on Firefox 3 Beta 5. Now, it is sort of expected that stuff wouldn't work but I had it working fine on Beta 3 and Beta 4. Beta 5 is the final beta release and the full release will be coming sometime in June. They may even get it working before the full release.

Now, what is annoying me is not the Adblock Plus won't work yet. What is annoying me however is that all these ads really slow down the computer! Now, maybe using a Pentium 3 750MHZ ThinkPad isn't really that good of an idea to begin with, but I would hate to throw out a working computer! I know that all these ungodly annoying ads are what PAYS for most of the websites we get, but they have got to go!

I have only 384MB of RAM on this T20 but I can run Office 2007, Visual Studio 2008 Professional, and Windows XP just fine. These don't slow down the computer nearly as much as Firefox does! Is Firefox to blame here? Absolutely not. Now I do not mind ads on a site but FLASH ads are murder.

If an ad was a simple static PNG or JPG its not nearly as much of an impact on people who use an older computer. Just try loading Engadget on something like my T20. Now as someone who uses an older computer quite a lot, I think I speak for a lot of people here who have no reason to upgrade.

The worst ads however are these ones that TALK. These, and all sounds on the computer, for some reason go over Windows Media Player 11. Now I use this a lot so I can listen to music on my Acer instead of using my Walkman like I am now as I write this in the back seat of a 2003 Ford Focus. This is one reason I will not go to a site like Freeware PPC or Palm without an Adblock installed. I do not car if I "won" two "free" iPods or an Xbox 360.

Now this rant is not just about flash ads annoying me to death. Its also about other stuff like why we need to stop neglecting older computers. Now I know I probably sound like an old man complaining that the old days were better. The thing is however that some older technology was better. Now I don't mean we should all drop a 3.2GHZ 8 core Mac Pro for a Pentium 1. I am talking about stuff like the ThinkPad line for example.

The best thing about an older ThinkPad is that these things are like tanks. I can use my T20 and not worry is something is going to break anytime soon. Sure my older 570 needs new hinges but it still works. The build quality on these older ones is simply amazing.

Look at taking it apart for example. IBM and now, Lenovo, provide a full hardware maintenance manual online. This even tells you the part numbers and how to replace them. If you have a broken keyboard, all you need is a new one. Its easy to replace for even an average user. This is something a lot of companies should work on. I would rather get a part and replace it myself then send it in for service. When you need to send your computer in, you are without it for a few weeks.

Now, sometimes older technology is nice but kind of pointless to use right? I mean who wants to use an old Macintosh 128k? Well, I should say it more like this" Who, besides the die hard Macintosh fans, would want to use an old Macintosh 128k?" right? There is a limit on old technology to me. While it may be fun to mess with something old like that, its not very useful.

One of these things that I love the form factor of is the Handheld PC line. These were pretty much a mutated offspring of a Laptop computer and a PDA. These can, however, be made quite useful if they made a little change here and there. Here is my proposed "Bloggers PDA" device.

Now, there is a device which we will use the basis from. This is the MobilePro 880 by NEC. Very similar to my 780 but with a 9.4" square 800x600 LCD. So, we will take the form factor of this including size. Now there is some stuff around the screen so lets up the size to 10" since I think it would fit. Also, replace the old DTSN screen with a newer and much nicer TFT. Lets also replace the CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent light) backlight with a nice LED backlight.

The next set of changes I would make is to use a faster 624MHZ XScale processor to speed it up. Lets also add some software that could use dynamic scaling to make it more power efficient. Lets also add a nice big LiPo (lithium Polymer) battery for a good battery life. Lets shoot for at the least 6 hours. This would be user replaceable, unlike a certain 1800 dollar base model MacBook Air.

Next, we will add a TrackPoint while retaining the touch screen. This would make it a bit more easy to use. This means that you don't need to pick up the stylus all the time. The dual pointing methods could also include a touchpad for wider range of user preferences like the IBM ThinkPads have now with the UltraNav system.

Now I did say this would be aimed at the blog user. So we will need a nice sized memory right? How does 4GB of internal flash sound? This may not seem like much at first but consider that it would also have CF, SD, and a PCMCIA CardBus slot. The CF slot would be a Type II and the CardBus slot a Type III. Why a Type III if most cards are Type II? A Type III slot will allow the use of two Type II cards at once.

Now, as this is being aimed at people on the move, we are going to need some sort of wireless communications right? Well, There would be 3 models of the device. One would be standard with WiFI G and Bluetooth. Thn you have the GSM and CDMA models which will have a cell phone in them with 3G speeds. Why 3 models? Not everyone wants the phone part so it would be something that could be removed easily or added later on if the user so chooses.

Now, of course we are going to need some good software right? Now we know XP will not run on a ARM based processor like the XScale. This means we will need to go with Windows CE or Linux. I personally vote for Windows CE. Now, on its own, Windows CE is not perfect so it will need some changes. Keeping Windows CE as the core, it needs a new name right? I was thinking something along the lines of Windows Portable Edition. I shall call this Windows PE from now on.

Windows PE would need to have some good features for a blogger right? Of course, a word processor is needed. The new word processor software would be based on Word 2007. This could be called Office Mini 2007. It would also have a "Publish to Blog" button of course. We also would have the full suite of basic office software since there will be other people who want this.

It would have a Mini edition of Windows Media Player 11 also for music and video playback needs. Now since we are dealing with a device with only 4GB of internal memory, which will be shared with software, we would need to use a codec for audio and video that takes up a smaller space as possible.

It would also have a decent browser such as FireFox 3 or Internet Explorer 7 to provide full internet including stuff like YouTube and flash games. There would also be a full Instant Messenger, SMS, and Email suite for communicating with friends. The instant messenger would be Pidgin of course. Now, since we have a full internet browser we will need to have an option for an external mouse right?

The device would have full USB 2.0 host and 2 ports. These would have full power so you can charge your MP3 player or cell phone over the battery if you so wish. There would also be a docking port on the bottom so you can add 4 more USB ports, LAN and VGA ports and a DVD RW drive. There would also be a second extended battery on this base. The base would be sold as an add on to keep costs low.

So there you have it, a PDA made for bloggers and normal people! Now, I know not many people would but this since PDA users are starting to become a technological minority lately with cell phone PDA users becoming a stronger force. I still like the classic PDA, sorry. I just don't see much need to cross the two together.

I wanted to do a rant about living in a world dominated by Apple but this entry is already quite big. Its almost 4 pages at this point and an anti Apple rant would probably add 3 more since we all know how much I can't stand Apple. I guess I could include it in tomorrows entry or another day maybe.

Now I would like to do some more normal blog stuff. I really love those noise canceling Sony headphones that I got for 40 bucks at RadioShack! They are pretty much perfect for car trips since I can use them to block out most everything. They also sound really good too. They are one pair of headphones that have good bass. It really is true that you get what you pay for an all.

I really am a Sony fan. When I look at all the Sony stuff I have, I need to laugh. I have had a PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP. I do have a Vaio desktop but not a laptop. I have 3 Clies and a lot of stuff for them that is Sony branded. I also have a NetMD and a Walkman MP3 and CD player. I use Sony headphones most of the time. I just need a Vaio laptop and a Bravia TV!

Speaking of TV… It will be 2 weeks Wednesday since I sent mine in to get fixed. I really hope to have it back soon since I want to use it as a monitor for that old Vaio. I decided to put the XP hard drive back into the ThinkPad since I will get my TV back soon. I can't say this on a forum because I would probably be killed but I will say it here.

I see Linux to be more of a hobby then an operating system. Sure you CAN get along without using Windows but no matter what, you need Windows for something in my opinion. Sure you can use different software but I always end up missing XP for some reason or another. I like to play with Linux but I don't think I could use only Linux. Linux just isn't really there yet in terms of user friendliness and hardware drivers. Maybe in a few years Linux will be the dominating operating system but I think Windows is here to stay!

Okay here is the chinchilla update. We ended up with 4 instead of the planned 2. We got a good deal though. So, here is the color and name list. I will take pictures when they settle in more.
Girl:
Kiki: light tan
Candy: beige
Boy:
Chilly: black ebony
ChinLee: dark tan

We had McDonalds for supper since we didn't have time to really eat with the whole chinchilla pickup thing. We also needed to get a second cage since we didn't count on getting 4! I will do the full teardown on the buggy tomorrow. The weather will be in the 50s.

April 4, 2008

2008-04-04T20:44:00.001-04:00

Today was a wet day. It rained all day. I really am sick of this weather. I am still planning on dismantling the car this weekend. I have been thinking of spending a little more on the car then I expected to though. I need to get a new body and tires soon so I may get them early.

I haven't been working on that game much since I decided to take a little break to play Crisis Core. I really am enjoying this game and I hope to finish the main story soon. I am going to play it twice though so I can get all the missions done.

I had hamburgers for supper today with French fries. They were the Angus beef ones from Sams club. These are pretty good. They are seasoned so they taste a lot better then most. The weather tomorrow is going to be a nice 53 and cloudy. Too bad my buggy doesn't work since its going to be nice.

April 3, 2008

2008-04-03T19:59:00.000-04:00

I got a call from CyberTech today. I will be getting a box in a few days to send it back again. I hope it comes back fixed this time. I am getting a little annoyed with this thing. This will be the second time I am sending it in. After 3 times though, it gets replaced.

I also decided to Ubuntu my ThinkPad T20. I swapped out the 40GB 5400RPM drive for the spare 80GB 4200RPM drive I had. I installed the updates for 8.04 LTS. I shall see how it runs. I may even install it on the Acer if all goes well. Though I will probably wait for 8.04 to be released fully before I put it on the Acer.

I will be taking apart the buggy this weekend to inspect everything. I am thinking of ordering differential oil to use instead of the stock grease. The differential oil will give it better traction since it won't spin out the differentials too much. A friend suggested I got 5000 weight all around.

Supper today was chicken fried steak. It was okay. I thought it was a little on the peppery side personally. Weather today was kind of chilly. We are getting rain tonight into tomorrow. Going to be 47 with about and inch and a half of rain.

April 2, 2008

2008-04-02T20:15:00.000-04:00

I had some problems today. I took out the RC again. The one way is still slipping but I did fix it a little. I got it to start today and took a walk to the park up the road. The car was running great and I was doing a lot of high speed runs. All was going well until I clipped a plastic barrier that they put up. It was only a few inches tall bit it broke the upper arm on the one side.

What annoys me is not that the car broke but how it broke. The piece of the arm that broke was the turn buckle, a metal rod with threads, not the plastic of the arm. Right before this happened. I started to hear a clicking noise. This means that one of the ring or pinion gears on the differential are going to strip soon.

I will have to take the car apart this weekend and start cleaning it good. This lets me inspect the gears to see if they are stripping. The best way to clean the car of course is to totally take it apart. I need to mix up some cleaner though. I use Purple Power from Wal-Mart since its cheap and works well.

Supper today was fried chicken and French fries. My dad makes really good fried chicken but its really basic. Its just breaded with seasoned bread crumbs and fried on the stove. I really love it on a sandwich. The best thing is that when my dad makes it we have enough left over for a few cold sandwiches! The weather today wasn't bad. It will be 54 tomorrow and rain at night.

April 1, 2008

2008-04-01T20:37:00.001-04:00

Well, Cyber Tech gave me a call today. They are trying to tell me that it is a software problem and that I need to do a full drain on the battery, hard reset, and call them back. If that doesn't fix it, I will get another box in the mail. This is getting kind of annoying.

I was thinking of making an April fools post as a joke. I don't really think that they are that funny personally. Some of the sites I check did some jokes but they did some stupid ones. Gizmodo is using Mr. T in every post. Woot is having a Woot off with the same product all day. Youtube is Rick Rolling people with the featured videos.

We had pork chops with the steak dust on them and a baked potato. The steak dust really is good on anything really. The weather was nice today. It was in the 60s! We even got a few thunder storms towards the evening. It will be 46 tomorrow.

March 31, 2008

2008-03-31T20:25:00.001-04:00

I decided that I will just post the results of the tests as plain text. Sorry about the length.

Hitachi 6GB MicroDrive:
Hardware performance index: 150.09
File system performance index: 145.58
File system read test (unbuffered): 11.5x (1.67MB/Sec)
File system read test (buffered): 16.6x (2.42MB/Sec)
File system write test (unbuffered): 7.9x (1.16MB/Sec)
File system write test (buffered): 8.5x (1.25MB/Sec)
File system general test: 24.19 operations
Low level unbuffered bust read test: 10.9x (1.60MB/Sec)
Low level buffered burst read test: 51.2x (7.49MB/Sec)
Low level unbuffered burst write test: 9.1x (1.32MB/Sec)
Low level buffered burst write test: 45.9x (6.72MB/Sec)

Lexar 1GB Comapact Flash:
Hardware performance index: 221.29
File system performance index: 165.92
File system read test (unbuffered): 15.0x (2.19MB/Sec)
File system read test (buffered):17.8x (2.61MB/Sec)
File system write test (unbuffered): 7.2x (1.04MB/Sec)
File system write test (buffered):14.6x (2.13MB/Sec)
File system general test: 24.08 operations
Low level unbuffered bust read test: 13.7x (2.00MB/Sec)
Low level buffered burst read test: 72.4x (10.60MB/Sec)
Low level unbuffered burst write test: 15.8x (2.31MB/Sec)
Low level buffered burst write test: 55.3x (8.10MB/Sec)

Sandisk 512MB Ultra II Compact Flash:
Hardware performance index: 214.79
File system performance index: 147.76
File system read test (unbuffered): 15.8x (2.31MB/Sec)
File system read test (buffered): 18.9X (2.77MB/Sec)
File system write test (unbuffered): 7.5x (1.09MB/Sec)
File system write test (buffered): 17.9x (1.09MB/Sec)
File system general test: 44.98 operations
Low level unbuffered bust read test: 14.6x (2.14MB/Sec)
Low level buffered burst read test: 76.9x (11.26 MB/Sec)
Low level unbuffered burst write test: 14.0x (2.05MB/Sec)
Low level buffered burst write test: 66.6x (9.74MB/Sec)

Sandisk 2GB Ultra II SD:
Hardware performance index: 208.78
File system performance index: 217.92
File system read test (unbuffered): 16.5x (2.41MB/Sec)
File system read test (buffered): 17.5x (2.55MB/Sec)
File system write test (unbuffered): 12.6x (1.84MB/Sec)
File system write test (buffered): 15.8x (2.31MB/Sec)
File system general test: 19.43 operations
Low level unbuffered bust read test: 14.6x (2.13MB/Sec)
Low level buffered burst read test: 74.8x (10.96MB/Sec)
Low level unbuffered burst write test: 13.3x (1.94MB/Sec)
Low level buffered burst write test: 58.6x (8.58MB/Sec)

Patriot 4GB SD Card:
Hardware performance index: 190.93
File system performance index: 155.83
File system read test (unbuffered): 16.6x (2.43MB/Sec)
File system read test (buffered): 20.5x (3.00MB/Sec)
File system write test (unbuffered): 4.2x (623.65KB/Sec)
File system write test (buffered): 14.4x (2.10MB/Sec)
File system general test: 19.96 operations
Low level unbuffered bust read test: 14.3x (2.10MB/Sec)
Low level buffered burst read test: 75.5x (11.06MB/Sec)
Low level unbuffered burst write test: 11.1x (1.62MB/sec)
Low level buffered burst write test: 50.5x (7.39MB/Sec)

I really have to say, I much rather use a PDA sometimes then a laptop. While a laptop is better it's also more of a pain to carry. It such an annoying pain that I need to send it off again.

I wanted to give everyone a little heads up about some upcoming changes to this site. So here are some things that I will be doing soon. I hope everyone enjoys these changes.

1. The poll idea was a complete failure to be completely honest. There were only 5 votes and I was me. Another Vote was a friend who I showed the site to. This means that only 3 people voted. So, I guess I only have 3 people who read my site.

That is why I will not have any more polls. I will start them again, however, if people leave enough comments saying they want them back. I would make a poll but no one voted last time so I doubt anyone will on this.

2. Expect some longer entries soon. I want to start making this site more active. Maybe that is why I only got 3 votes. The site is kind of boring really. I understand that people want more stuff to read.

The standard entry is pretty much crappy stuff about me. It's just some stuff like what I did that day, the weather, and what I had for supper that day. I am going to introduce this new feature. You will be able to email me a topic for a discussed at mikeypizano@gmail.com now.

I will be keeping all the other stuff. That is in the daily entry. This stuff has become a normal thing here and I would like to leave it. It is also what I do when I don't have much of an entry for that day.

3. Here are some future topics I will be discussing on this blog.
1. My PDA history
2. Living in an iWorld (a very anti-Apple rant.)
3. The perfect...

These will be discussed at random times really. I would like to do them in a schedule but I just don't have either time or patience to keep it up. I hope everyone will enjoy these changes. I would like to make this site a more fun place.

Supper today was stuffed peppers. As I said before, I do not eat the peppers, so mine is pretty much meat balls really. Its still good though. Rain and wind tomorrow but in the 60s for once! I would love if it was going to be a nice day and my buggy worked though.

March 30, 2008

2008-03-30T20:00:00.002-04:00

We had to go up to Sears today. We had to go to the one in Dickson City though. We are getting a new washer and they have a really good sale today too. It's from 6 to 9 PM only though so we had to get it today.

We choose a nice frontload one. It uses less water and even has a heater in it. The only bad thing is you need the HE detergent, which is more concentrated. Its good since you use more it lasts longer. The one we got is 2x concentrated.

I did some benchmarking on the MicroDrive today the strange thing is that the results were similar to fastest card I have. I didn't buy the card for performance. I bought it because it was really cheap!

I will post them tomorrow. I want to make a table and I am not really sure how I want to set it up yet.

I decided that I will use my iPaq until I get the box. This includes getting the setup just right. I will make a back up before I pack it up again. I should have done this last time really. It would have made getting it setup again a LOT easier!

I had to make a little pull tag with electrical tape so I could get the MicroDrive in and out. The iPaq doesn't have the much needed ejection mechanism. The NEC has it though so I don't need the tape on that. Not many PDAs have one anymore. To be honest, its really annoying. Why bother using a type II slot if you can't get the cards out!

I really hate using stuff outside! Screens are so annoying when its sunny out. The screen protector I have on it is a crappy Belkin one so its horrible outside! I am really thinking about picking up a nice one like a Boxwave since they are really nice compared to what you get in stores.

The weather was pretty nice today. It was very sunny. The forecast for tonight is rain and tomorrow is RAIN! I had home made hot wings today. We make ours on the mild side though. We also tried some with Kikkoman teriyaki glaze which came out really good. Personally, I don't like spicy food really...

I worked on the game a little today. I didn't get much done though. I plan on taking my time with it though. It comes out better when you take time to do something properly.

I found out that Crisis Core has 300 missions in it. This makes it quite a long game! I love how people complain that its not a turn based game but an action role playing game. I have to say I really like that its different for a change. A turn based game can get boring once you play enough of them!

March 29, 2008

2008-03-29T19:57:00.001-04:00

Today was fun. We went to get another ton of pellets. We have a half ton here at the house and 2 and a half tons up at the place. This should be enough for next year. We also went for Chinese food today. It was a great day really.

I got a stand for my TV and a 6GB micro drive at Circuit City on clearance for about 20 each. Pretty good deals huh? I had the same arm for my TV before but when I gave my old TV to parents they took the arm too. This is great since the 19" is huge on my desk!

The weather was pretty annoying. It was cold and windy. I took out the RC today and I had some problems. I decided to clean out the back plate area of the engine. Well, its still slipping so here is what I want to try next. I found an O ring sealing the shaft so I will replace that.

We went for Chinese like I said before. The food was really good today. I have been pretty thirsty though today. We also went to Dairy Queen at the one mall. We got 2 large Heath Blizzards. My parents split one and I had a whole one. Those things are filling!

March 28, 2008

2008-03-28T20:33:00.001-04:00

Well, my iPaq came back! So far its still doing the button thing a little but I think it might just need to work in. I have to say I really am glad that I have it back. I really need a new battery though.

I have to say I rather carry my iPaq then a laptop. As mush as I love my thinkPad, I really hate carrying it. The iPaq fits in my pocket at least. Like I just said, I need a new battery to make it really useful.

Supper today was tuna sandwiches. I really enjoyed them but my stomach didn't! We didn't get the rain today really thankfully! It is going to be sunny tomorrow thankfully.

March 27, 2008

2008-03-27T20:47:00.000-04:00

The internet is such a huge distraction! I try to work on my programming and I end up opening FireFox and checking stuff like Engadget or Gizmodo all day. This is really annoying but I know I am not the only one who gets side tracked so easy.

I have to say that I miss what I use to do on my old blog. I am thinking of going back to a website like I use to have. I will use 110MB Hosting probably though. I really do miss doing the articles and stuff. I will think about what I want to do. The one thing is that you won't be able to comment though, not like anyone reads the site. I will just need to see what happens I guess.

I really love Crisis Core a lot. I only played a little bit but this was worth the 40 bucks. While this game is a Final Fantasy game, it is not a turn based RPG game. Its an Action RPG which has a more Zelda like battle system. You use left and right to select attacks or magic or items. I really like this but its sort of a button masher game to be honest. It is a prequel to Final Fantasy VII so I will be playing that next.

I found something neat about the PS3. My TV that I sent to be fixed only had DVI and not HDMI. This means that I need to use optical for sound on the living room TV. I found out that you can send only Audio through the AV port on the back of the PS3. This means that once I finally get my TV back I can play PS3 in my room.

The weather for tomorrow is rain and snow again. We didn't really get much today. The temperature is going to be in the 40s again. Supper today was good. Its strips of London broil in Good Seasons Italian dressing and thrown on the grill, and a baked potato. I really love baked potatoes as you can tell!

March 26, 2008

2008-03-26T19:57:00.001-04:00

I have to say that I really do love my ThinkPad T20 again. Its been a long time since I talked about how much I really love it. I love having a small 14" laptop for in the car. Sure it is not the fastest computer around but it can do something not much else can. It makes me happy!

I have to say that I worked on the game a little bit more today and I am kind of stumped. I need to be more creative in the story line I think. So here is what I am going to do. If you would like to help make the game I want you to send me an email at mikeypizano@gmail.com and I will contact you. To be involved, you need an IRC program. If you do not have one I will help you.

I took my TV to get fixed today. I have to wait 2 to 4 weeks now! I am kind of annoyed since I wanted to use it for a monitor. I may buy a component cable for my PS3 so I can play it in my room. I have to see if the TV has the component inputs though. It sucks when your TV doesn't have a HDMI port!

I decided to pick up a copy of Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII today. I didn't want to drop 40 bucks on a game but Best Buy had it and I figured that I will be bored for 2 weeks with no TV. I still love Disgaea but I need a bit of a break. I am in the mood for a different type of game really.

Supper today was left over turkey in gravy with mashed potatoes. I have to say I really like instant potatoes. The real ones are better but instant are easier to make. We made little sandwiches out of the turkey. The weather today was kind of windy. The weather tomorrow is rain and snow, with the temperature being 44.

March 25, 2008

2008-03-25T20:20:00.001-04:00

We got a new TV today for the kitchen. It’s a 26 inch Vizio from Walmart. I got the old 19 inch Samsung. I have a bit of a problem though. The VGA port on the Samsung won’t work! I have to go up Best Buy tomorrow since we have a warranty on it. I have to say I tried the PS3 on the new TV and I really like it! Its so much better then the rear projection to me.

So I am back on Windows again. That update didn't work to good for me. So here is what I need to do once I get the TV to work right. I will set up that Vaio. It has a fresh Ubuntu 7.10 install so its ready for use once I get it to work. The thing is that the graphics card may not be great for Ubuntu.

I had hot dogs and French fries for supper today. I really love a Nathans hot dog and some good home made French fries! The weather for tonight is rain and snow showers with the temperature being 51 tomorrow.

March 24, 2008

2008-03-24T20:08:00.000-04:00

Back on Linux once again! I decided to use a spare drive so I still have the Windows one if all goes wrong again. I will be updating to 8.04 soon also. So far so good. Everything seems to be working for me this time.

I didn't work on the game today but I do plan on working on it soon. I was kind of busy installing Linux so I didn't do much of anything today. I have to say that I plan on getting my RC some use soon. What I really need to do though is find a way to use my iPaq on Linux.

Supper today was Salisbury steak patties, peas, and sweet potatoes. This was a good meal today. I love the Salisbury patty with A1 steak sauce and that steak dust seasoning on it. Weather is 49 tomorrow with rain and snow that night. Looks like I may take out the RC tomorrow if its warm.

March 23, 2008

2008-03-23T20:15:00.001-04:00

Happy Easter everyone! I had some good food today. We went to my grand parents for supper. We had raviolis and turkey. The raviolis where home made too. The weather was not to bad today. It will be 44 tomorrow so I may take out my buggy.

I got something new today. Its a keyboard for the PlayStation 3 that works on my laptop. It was on rollback at Walmart for 25 bucks from 70 so I couldn't resist it. It has a small touchpad on the side. The only thing I am not a fan of is that its louder then my laptop keyboards. I am not use to desktop keyboards! It has laptop style keys though.

I worked on the game a little today but I didn't do much. I was going to do a lot more but I ended up being a little more distracted then I planned on! I have a friend who will let me host the files on his site. I thank you! I will let everyone know when its done.

March 22, 2008

2008-03-22T19:50:00.001-04:00

Well, I have decided that the game is going to be Rayok. I am gong to use the story line from the "first" game in the new one. This is better since I can have 1 long game instead of a short one. I got a lot done today too. It will be a very long game at this rate. I need to learn to indent my code though. Since I am coding in a text file I don’t get the automatic indent.

I had Chinese for supper today. It was very good too. I really like the vegetable lo mien a lot. I prefer chicken but they don't have it at buffets. I also like the teriyaki chicken on the sticks. I also like the fact that the ones we go to have Pepsi instead of Coke. The weather for tomorrow is COLD! It will be 41.

March 21, 2008

2008-03-21T20:03:00.001-04:00

I started working on the game today. It’s a lot bigger then the other one and I just started too. Its already over 300 lines of code. This one has some more added features as well as a better, longer story line. This game will take a lot longer to make since it’s a bigger game. Please be patient! You can't rush perfection after all!

Supper today was pierogis tonight. They were the mini 4 cheese blend and came out really good. The weather is looking to be cold again. They said that the temperatures are 10 degrees lower this year then last year. Sunday is looking to be under 40. I really can't wait for it to warm up!

March 20, 2008

2008-03-20T20:17:00.001-04:00

Well here is some good news for everyone. I have started on the second Rayok game. This one should be a longer game and maybe coded a little better. I made Rayok kind of quickly so it was basic. The next one, called Rayok II oddly enough, will take longer to make and be more involved.

I have been thinking. I may look into using Source Forge to host the code. I don't know how it works but I think it will be great to host the code. The programs that I am making are Free Open Source Software after all.

Supper today was hamburgers from Sams. They are Angus ones that are VERY good! We had them fried but we will make them on the grill next time. I also got some Easter Pizza from my grandmother. Now this is the good stuff too. I wait for this every year. It will be pretty windy tonight and tomorrow.

March 19, 2008

2008-03-19T19:35:00.001-04:00

I finished the game last night. I just need a place to host it. I am thinking of getting my old Google site back up and running. I also have my old 110MB account. I can just use it to host the files. For now, until I get this set up, you can email me and I will send you the .cpp file and you can compile it yourself. My email is mikeypizano at gmail dot com.

I had a really good supper today. I had steak, a salad, and a baked potato. Now that is what I call a good supper. I make my salad kind of weird. I love it with just cucumbers, chick peas, and croutons in Balsamic vinegar. The weather today was rain on and off. We didn't get that 3 inches that called for thankfully.

I have been thinking of getting some more use out of my old stuff. It kind of annoys me when I see something like my NEC just sitting on my desk. I also have a lot of other stuff I wish I could get more use out of. I also wish some of my old stuff worked in general. I have a few broken PDAs sitting in my room. My TX, that Interlink C101, a TJ25 and a Casio E200.

March 18, 2008

2008-03-18T20:15:00.001-04:00

I hate this weather! We are getting a lot more rain now! We are getting another inch and a half of rain! We are in another flood watch! This is getting annoying. Since I have taken down my RC car, all we get is rain. I still have to fix the one way bearing on my buggy so I can get it to start right!

I had pork chops with the steak dust on it. These were really good like this. I have to say that the steak dust is one of the few spices we use often. I had a baked potato too.

I finished the game! All I need to finish doing is some minor stuff like getting the source code to work correctly. I then need to debug and fix any typos I may have made. I also need to find a place to host the code. The thing is that you will need to compile it yourself probably since I use Visual Studio 2008.

I also sent the iPaq today. I have about 2 weeks before I get it back so here is to waiting. I hope it comes back fixed properly! I have also been playing Disgaea a lot more. I got a game over on episode 10 and it gave you the option to save and transfer the stuff to a new game so I am starting over with current stats. The game doesn't end at 10.

March 17, 2008

2008-03-17T19:37:00.001-04:00

I worked on the game a little bit more today. I didn't do too much though. It is starting to be a lot of code. It's like 5 pages so far! I can not wait to get it done since it will be my first game ever. It will also be the longest program I have ever made in C++.

I got the box to send out my iPaq today! What fast service! I only waited about a month! I will be sending it in on Wednesday so I will see how it goes. It is supposed to take 10 business days so I am assuming 2 weeks or so. Lets hope it comes back working…

I had Tyson chicken keiv pockets today. They are like the cordon blue ones but different fillings. I do not know what was in them but they were good. I would like them again. Weather today was kind of cold. It was in the 40s but felt like the 30s with the wind. Rain and snow tomorrow night!

March 16, 2008

2008-03-16T19:54:00.001-04:00

Today was fun. I ended up working on the RC car today. I put the shaft starter back on but the one way bearing is still slipping. I adjusted the brakes and now the rear brakes lock up on me. The problem there is that I spin a lot. I also slid into a puddle so that ruined my fun today.

It was kind of cold today too. The wind chill was in the 30s! I ended up coming inside fast today. I had pasta for supper. I love my dad's pasta sauce. I also love his meat balls. They are great on a piece of bread with some cheese too! The weather for tomorrow will be 42. Maybe I will get the RC out tomorrow.

I didn't work on the program much today. I found out that if you compile the code in Visual Studio, you need to have it installed to run the program! I have a lot of code but it needs a lot more work. This is a test candidate only of course. It will be made better soon.

March 15, 2008

2008-03-15T19:45:00.001-04:00

I had some fun today. I went to Old Country Buffet! We went out today but for once I didn’t buy a single thing. Weird right? The weather was nice today but a little colder then yesterday. We are going to get rain and snow showers tonight and tomorrow.

I did a lot of coding on the game. I am thinking of setting up a site again, maybe on Google Pages, just to host the files. I will also think about using a crappy free host to do it. I will leave the blog on Blogger since its just easier that way. I found out about using switch commands and cases instead of if statements so the code is going well.

I have been getting pretty far in Disgaea so I will have to pick a game to play next. I am thinking of playing Final Fantasy II or Medievil. I want to beat the rest of the games I have before I waste money on a new one. I have the money to buy them but I would rather save it.

March 14, 2008

2008-03-14T20:15:00.001-04:00

First thing I need to say is that I contacted City Assure and they sent the box out today. Its only been about a month! They said that I should get the box by Tuesday. This is great since I really want to get the iPaq fixed. I will probably get an extended battery somehow for it. This will let me use it again.

I played with my RC car again today. I ran like 2 tanks through it only. It was making a weird noise so I stopped to clean it a bit. I didn't do much since I didn't want to take it apart just yet. I am thinking of getting a new body for it soon as this one is getting a little beat up.

Supper today was tacos. Pretty good tacos too! I don't use seasoning or salsa on mine though as I do not like hot foods. I just use hamburger and cheese with a little salt. The weather is going to be rain tonight. Its going to be 52 tomorrow.

March 13, 2008

2008-03-13T21:15:00.000-04:00

I started doing something different on the game today. I switched the code to C++ since I feel that it has more options. This will change some stuff. For one, I can probably learn to make a GUI instead of using the console interface. I will find a way to post code some how. The game is totally open source.

I don’t know why but I have been in a coding mood lately. Maybe it is just me but I really enjoy coding when I am not being forced to do it. When I was in high school, my teacher for C++ didn’t really care whether or not we did the work so I never really learned. I guess learning it on my own is the same way.

I didn’t do much of anything today. I woke up kind of late so I didn’t have time to do much. I was going to have frozen lasagna for supper but they didn’t taste too good so we had the chicken pot pie with mashed potatoes from Sams club instead. The weather is looking good for tomorrow. Going to be 54 tomorrow! The only thing is we will get rain tomorrow night.

March 12, 2008

2008-03-12T20:02:00.000-04:00

Well today was a little fun. I played some Super Smash Brother on my friends N64. I didn't really care for the game since its just a button masher to me. I would play it but never buy it. I have better things to spend 50 bucks on then Brawl.

I also played some Wipeout Pulse and Disgaea on the PSP today. I transmigrated Laharl in Disgaea so I am leveling him up again. This was a great idea as it really helped out his health. Once I get 5000 mana, I may do it again. Using genius, which is 5000 mana, is worth the wait to get the extra 4000 needed.

I worked on that game a little but I didn't do much as I am still learning and all. I hope to get it going better soon. I have some ideas but that is about it. It is in Python right now but it may be changed to C++ soon. I know some code in C++ and it has stuff that would work well in the game.

Weather today was windy. We got some snow too. Nothing major but annoying none the less. I had breaded fish today for supper. I had haddock. Worst thing I did though was have onion rings. They have been annoying my stomach all day now. Weather for tomorrow looks nice for tomorrow. 47 with PM rain showers.

March 11, 2008

2008-03-11T19:48:00.000-04:00

We went a few places today. We got Dominoes Pizza for supper today. I really like pizza since you can get some many different kinds of pizza. What makes pizza really good is that every pizza is different. The weather will be warm again tomorrow.

I decided to clean up my room a little bit since I needed some more space. I moved my printer out of the way since I never use it I set up a USB hub and the old Zip drive. I figure since the Acer sits on my desk a lot anyway I should connect some stuff to it. I also switched the power scheme to always on so it doesn't automatically shut off on me. When I close the lid now it just suspends.

I have been trying to find someone with some hinges for the 570. I rather use the 570 a little more since it is only 4 pounds. Its a lot easier to carry a 4 pound laptop. My T20 is only 5 pounds but its still a little heavy really. I am not one of those people that are too weak to carry a normal laptop.

One thing I wish I could get for the T20 is a Zip drive to replace the DVD drive since I don't need it that much. I could use a program called Magic Disc to run an ISO image as a virtual drive if I need a CD or DVD to install something.

The Zip drive may only be 100MB but its still useful really...It is a lot easier, at least in my opinion to use a disk then a flash drive sometimes. On my T20, the only USB port is on the back which means I need to turn it around to put the drive in. My USB port is also vertically oriented so I can not use some stuff because they are too big.

There is also a “PocketZIP” that they sell for laptops. This is a 40MB disk that fits in a PCMCIA adapter. They use to call it a Clik! Drive until the click of death law suit. They has a 100MB drive in development but it turned out to be vaporware. The thing is that I can use a compact flash or SD adapter in the PCMCIA card slot and its not a moving disk that can crash.

I picked up a copy of Quake 4 today. I can't get it to work on my laptop so I will try installing it on my dads computer tomorrow and see if it works. I need to get a better laptop one of these days that doesn't a SiS graphics card in it. Maybe I will get a new one soon.

March 10, 2008

2008-03-10T20:19:00.001-04:00

I played a little bit of Unreal Tournament 3 today but not much. I was going to play more but I ended up doing other stuff. I love the Lego map. Its a lot of fun to just blow up the Lego parts of that map that are breakable. I play with no bots on this map and just myself.

Did anyone hear about the guy with the MacBook Air missing his flight because TSA didn't think it was a real computer? This kind of stuff makes me happy I don't fly! I would hate having them look at my stuff and getting possibly detained over my computer. Personally, I would rather just drive then go through all that trouble.

I hooked up the old 100MB Zip drive. This is one of the ones that has a power supply. It still works and I have 7 disks I can use. There are 2 with software stuff on them also. The thing may be useless but it works and its 100MB of data.

Sometimes I miss the old days. Remember when a Zip disk was great technology? It use to be that software was small and not bloated. I hate the fact that Windows is pretty bloated for what its really used for. I may mess with nLite and remove some stuff I don't use.

Supper today was chili. My dad makes the chili pretty mild actually. Its just sauce, chili powder, hamburger, and kidney beans. He also puts in a can of diced tomatoes now which is really good. Weather for tomorrow is going to be 44. The 10 day forecast is looking good too! Not a day under freezing!

March 9, 2008

2008-03-09T20:01:00.001-04:00

Windy day today. Didn't go anywhere of course. I am going to try to learn some programing languages. I don't know what yet though however. I have a few choices really. Python, C#, C++, Visual Basic (and the .NET version) and some other stuff.

Its been 4 weeks since I called Circuit City about the iPaq and still nothing. So I guess I will be waiting for a while. Michelle said that she called and they said to resend the letter to transfer it so I guess I shouldn't have much longer. I want to get back into using it again.

Supper tonight was ribs. I love these things. We make them mild and I prefer it that way. I wish that they were cheaper so we could make them more often really. Weather tomorrow is going to be 40. I guess spring may finally be here now. It makes me happy that its getting warm.

I added this weeks poll. It is a computer related one of course. What operating system do you use? I voted Windows since it is what I use MOST. I didn't make a multiple choice poll though however this time. Poll is open until midnight next week.

March 8, 2008

2008-03-08T19:47:00.001-05:00

Today was a fun day. Went a few places again of course. I started to install a ton of mods that I downloaded for Unreal Tournament 3 today. Mods are a pain to install though. You have to do it one at a time since they are all the same file name. They REALLY need to put a mod downloader into the game badly. Oh, and add offline split screen...

Of the maps I downloaded today, I only tried 2 of them and they are really fun. One is a Lego one that is totally destructible and really fun. The problem is that I got a lot of lag with 16 people on the map. The other one is a really small map called BioMetal. This is really fun with 16 people since you can get a lot of monster kills and head shots pretty easy.

I have to say that I still haven't gotten that iPaq fixed yet. This is really annoying since it will be 4 weeks Sunday. I am getting quite tempted to just give up on it since the battery is just going deader and deader as it sits like this. Good thing I don't NEED the damn thing! I should just get a new one really since who knows if anything else will go on it.

I need to buy a new battery and a stylus for it too. The stylus is scratching my screen protectors really bad though they can just be crappy screen protectors too. I may get a new one from BoxWave since they are really good. The one that came on the iPaq when I got it from Michelle was a BoxWave and lasted a good 6 months!

I have been using my NEC MobilePro 780 more now. I have AIM and nPOP on it. I also have an IRC client that I use from time to time. The bad thing is that this thing is kind of slow and thus it is a little annoying to use sometimes. The bad thing is that the screen has a low refresh rate and is really hard to see outside.

I had fried meatballs for supper today. I love them but they repeat on me pretty badly. Its very annoying! The weather report is wet again. Yes even more rain. This time about an inch of rain only at least. They are also calling for some snow showers possibly.

Went for Chinese today. I love that stuff I really do! We went to the other buffet this week. It is going to be really windy tonight and we will be getting showers tonight. It will be a nice day tomorrow but really windy again. I also picked up a book on Visual Basic .Net today for 5 bucks.

March 7, 2008

2008-03-07T20:38:00.001-05:00

March 6, 2008

2008-03-06T20:43:00.000-05:00

We had to go a few places again today. The weather was really nice today. It was in the upper 40s today so I had a little fun. It is going to be in the upper 40s again tomorrow but it is going to be wet. Weather is calling for rain.

I took out my RC car today. I only ran one tank through the engine too see how it would run. Ran really good today too. It only stalled out once when I first started. I have a bit of a problem with the pull start one way bearing starting to slip again. I will have to take the engine off and soak the bearing in some cleaner.

Supper today was chicken fingers and fries. We also had some breaded baked raviolis. Those are really good too. They tasted like a mozzarella stick almost. The chicken fingers are by Tyson home style from Sams Club. They changed the coating so its not as spicy anymore.

March 5, 2008

2008-03-05T20:35:00.001-05:00

We went a few places today again. Its great when my dad is on vacation! We are thinking of getting a new TV for the kitchen so that means I will be getting the 19” Samsung that is in there now. We are thinking of getting a 26” which will be really nice since its bigger. I may get a high definition DVR for my room too.

I have been addicted to spider solitaire a lot now. I have been playing it all day. I did play a little Unreal Tournament 3 but I was a little bored with it today really. I want to play my PSP some more too. I have a bunch of episodes of Home Improvement on my TiVo though to watch.

Supper today was sandwiches. My parents made Italian hoagies but I had turkey sandwiches instead. I have to say that I really like turkey sandwiches more then hoagies any day. The buns can be too thick sometimes to me. I picked up a bag of Sun Chips harvest Cheddar today.

March 4, 2008

2008-03-04T20:23:00.000-05:00

Today was a very wet day. We had to go out for some stuff though. I did a full drain on the old battery that came with my ThinkPad T20 and gained back about 3 watt hours. I didn't really gain much back but that may be about 20 minutes or so and that is better then nothing.

Supper today was Salisbury steak patties with steak dust seasoning and mixed vegetables in cheese sauce. I really love the patties with some salt and A1 steak sauce on it. The weather tonight is RAIN! Yes, shocking as that may sound we are getting another 1 to 2 inches of rain on top of the half inch we got today.

I was playing with computers at Office Depot today. I have to say that the new Lenovo IdeaPads have nice keyboards like the ThinkPads do. One thing I don't like much on computers is that the touchpads are flush mounted now. I prefer boarders on them so your finger doesn't slide off all the time. The IdeaPad has a very nice sized touchpad though.

I was also playing with the HP TouchSmart again. This is what I think an all in one computer really should be. The best thing was playing spider solitaire on the large touchscreen. Though I see the touch screen as pretty much useless, it is still fun thing to have on it. I personally think the all in one computers are stupid since I would rather just get a laptop since you can't upgrade an all in one computer anyway.

March 3, 2008

2008-03-03T20:14:00.001-05:00

Well today was a fun day. We set up the security cameras we bought today. This took a few hours to do. Most of it was running the cables. I found my UltraBase for the 570 and the battery that came with my T20. I figured I would try and squeeze some extra juice out of the old battery. I drained it fully at pretty much full drain and I got it to last about one and a half hours.

I had steak today. It was very good steak too. It was 55 degrees today so it was really warm. I had a baked potato with it too. The only thing was no salad this time. The weather for tomorrow is WET! We are going to get up to TWO AND A HALF INCHES OF RAIN! That would be 2 and a half feet of snow if it was cold enough. We are in a flood watch now!

I have to say that I am playing Unreal Tournament 3 again. I was doing really good today until I lost my concentration. I was on a 150 kill streak then I got killed! I was playing 1 hour death match and after that first kill I just lost it.

March 2, 2008

2008-03-02T20:16:00.001-05:00

Well, today was a fun day. We went a few places today. I got to see the IdeaPad Y510 today. I have to say that I don't like the design much. Its too boxy and has an Apple style hinge. All in one its not a BAD design but I just don't really like it much. I would prefer a TrackPoint too though since I kind of like them. I love the laptops that have both TrackPoint and touchpad. This laptop did have something neat. It has a face recognition system to log on.

I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End on Bluray today. I have to say that it was amazing. I seen it in the theaters too and still loved it. I really am glad that Bluray is winning! It holds a lot more data then HD DVD does. Also, more data means bigger games!

We had pasta for supper today. Pasta is one thing I love though I am weird. I like to make meat ball and pasta sandwiches. The weather report is 42 tomorrow and showers. Pretty warm! Maybe Spring is finally coming and I can go outside again!

Guess what I heard on Sirus today! Basshunter! Yes, the Swedish guy! It was on a UK channel. It was Now Your Gone.

March 1, 2008

2008-03-01T20:12:00.001-05:00

Well, I have to say that I am going back to Windows again. Yes, I know I can not make up my mind. If it makes anyone feel better, I am only going back since I kind of LIKE Windows XP. There is nothing wrong with XP really. Its kind of upsetting since I just got Linux to work for the most part. I am not having any major problems with Linux but its slow to boot and kind of annoying.

I am glad that I made a backup of the Acer with the software that Acer put on the computer. This means that I can just delete the Linux partitions, run the recovery discs, then use the super grub disk I have to restore the Windows only boot record. Thankfully, its just a little long but easy for the most part.

I found this odd. The one thing that runs good on my ThinkPad is XP. I tried several Linux distributions and none seemed to be what I wanted. Puppy Linux was a pain to install and didn't have ACPI when I booted the live CD. Vector Linux Light ran really slowly. The installer for that was a pain too. SuSE ran the slowest for me though. The one that ran OKAY was Slax but I couldn't find out how to install it so I just put the 80GB with XP back in.

Well, today was a great day for getting stuff! I got a pair of Sony noise canceling headphones at Radio Shack for only 40 bucks. These are the ones that cost 100 bucks! These have a 1 year warranty on them since I have been known to break headphones a lot. I also got an 8GB A Data flash drive for 40 bucks at Office Max. I got a really great deal on this thing since the Sandisk ones are 80 at the cheapest I have seen.

We got like 3 inches of snow last night. Not much but enough to make stuff annoying. We went for Chinese food today. Wow today was great at the buffet. There was a lot of people so the food was always fresh and hot. I was really in the mood for this today! We were supposed to go last weekend but we didn't feel good so we stayed home.

February 29, 2008

2008-02-29T20:21:00.002-05:00

Well, I have some good news first things first. I made another Blog. This one is a multiple person technology related. Please visit the site at The Techs This is going to be a blog that features a lot of news items. I figured I would have a few people post so we get a wide array of posts since one person can be biased. As the description says, less Apple related news then the leading competitor!

I have to say that today was a good day for gaming. I was playing Unreal Tournament 3 on the PlayStation 3 for a little bit today and I did really good. I was getting pretty consistent results for the 4 rounds I played. The first 2 were around 58 kills and had 4 deaths each time. Then the third one, which was the best, was 62 kills to 2 deaths. Now that is what I call skill. Sure, I play on the easiest bot level but that makes it fun. The last round I slacked a bit and didn't look at the results.

I have been playing some more Disgaea too. I have been trying to level up my people more so I can do better. I have been leveling on the one level that has a really good geo symbol pattern that gives me a few levels per play through. I also have been checking for higher attack weapons. Most important is I am raising the health of them up.

A few days ago, I noticed 2 keys on my keyboard were broken. The caps wouldn't stay on the scissor lifts right since the clips broke on one side. Well, I decided to try the key caps from my old KB100 Clie keyboard. The key caps were the right size but didn't fit on the Acer lifts. So I took the ones off the keyboard and now I have the keys back. I have to say that it looks kind of funny with 2 white keys on a black keyboard.

I got Flash to work! I installed the x86 version of FireFox 3 Beta 3 on the Acer and now I have FLASH!This means that I can finally use Youtube and watch all the things that are on Digg! The one thing that is upsetting me is that I can't use Adblock Plus on Beta 3.

Supper was fried chicken sandwiches. My dads chicken is just breaded with seasoned bread crumbs. It is very good like that on a bun with some salt and mayonnaise. We has potato chips instead of French fries today. We got snow too. There should be 3 to 5 inches by morning.

February 28, 2008

2008-02-28T19:52:00.001-05:00

I have some news. You may have seen that the server is officially down. Yes, it is a sad day for me. There is one good thing though I guess. The server took up a lot of room on me. It is so much quiet without it too. I will miss it and having a site but I guess a Blogger site is good too really.

I want to say that the old posts are getting added slowly. The Blogger service has a word verification thing after so many posts that are made in one day. This means that I will be posting them as I can since the word verification goes away after 24 hours.

Well, I have to say that the free version of flash won't work right for me. This means that I am stuck with no Youtube still. I have to say though that I want to use Youtube, I just have to wait until I can get flash working. I may ask on some forums and see if anyone can help me with this.

I decided to use my NEC MobilePro 780 a bit more. I figure that I own it so I might as well keep using it. I have to say that if the screen was usable outside I would love it a lot more. Its really annoying that I can't use it more often. It may be old but it can save a Word document just fine and that is what is the most important thing to me,

I have to say that I have been watching Home Improvement a lot lately. This week has been 18 episodes a night marathon. This is one of the reasons I really love my TiVo. I have it set to record them so I have stuff to watch when I am bored. Its funny really since I never really watch TV and I have the 80 hour DirecTV branded TiVo.

Supper was mini pirogies deep fried with melted butter. They are very good deep fried since they get nice and crispy. We got the mini ones again since they are easier to eat really. Weather for tomorrow is snow showers. They said we may get some accumulations Friday night. We shall see what happens though.

February 27, 2008

2008-02-27T19:56:00.002-05:00

You may have noticed that my site has forwarded here. I used to have a server but decided to just go to an account here on Blogger. This is a step down I know but I am sick of having a server in my room. I have to say that not needing to type these in HTML is a lot nicer that is for sure! I am posting all of the old pages here. The best thing is that this site will automatically order the pages right. The server will be going down soon, possibly tomorrow so I hope everyone has this new site bookmarked!

I will be keeping the setup the same. I will keep the weather and dinner reports here since I really like those. I will have to post all the reviews here once I get time to fix them. The pictures need to be made smaller so they will wrap correctly. I have to say that it does feel weird going to Blogger again after hosting my own server. I have to admit that Blogger isn't really bad since its owned by Google after all!

I have been playing Disgaea still. I looked it up and the game has 14 main episodes and then some ones that you can unlock. I have to admit, this is one of the best made games I have seen. Almost all parts of the story have voice acting. They don't have cut scenes in the traditional sense but just voice.

Had hamburgers for supper tonight. I had mine plain fried with A1 sauce though. Also had baked beans and French fries. Weather report for tomorrow is AM snow showers and cold. It is also going to be very cold tonight and tomorrow night.

I also got flash player working now. I decided to use the free open source software version of Flash player 7. This means that I can finally watch Youtube and stuff now! I still wish Adobe would make a 64 bit version of Flash 9 for Linux already!

February 26, 2008

2008-02-26T22:05:00.001-05:00

Well I have officially decided that I will be keeping Linux. I tried installing it onto my T20 on a 40GB drive but I am having problems with ACPI and its kind of a slow. I am going to be keeping the 80GB I have with XP on it for backup or when I need to use XP for something. I have most everything working on the Acer now too except for flash but that is Adobe's fault! Here is a message for Adobe:
RELEASE PROPER DRIVERS FOR X64 LINUX!

I have also decided that I may be fixing up the 570. It is dependent on whether or not I can find the needed parts for it though. I want to get a CF to IDE adapter and use a 1GB card and a small Linux like Puppy or Damn Small Linux. This is since its so small that it could be a good use for a travel computer. The thing is that I need to get ram and a battery for it. The thing has 192MB now but I could give it a bit of a boost with 320. Also, the battery only lasts for 5 minutes most.

Supper today was chicken nuggets and French fries. These are little pop corn chicken nuggets that you can get in the grocery store for pretty cheap. They are quite good too which is a bit of a shock really for the price. We also had some jalapeño poppers that we had left. Weather tomorrow is snow showers and wind.

February 25, 2008

2008-02-25T22:07:00.001-05:00

I have been on Linux for a day now and I need to say that KDE is different then I was use to on GNOME. For example, the text editor kWrite is not tabbed. Also I am still getting use to the different SuSE menu. It has tabs for stuff and then the applications tab has categories. I have to say that I really like it and a lot more then the GNOME menus.

One of the best things that I found out is that my MP3 player works just fine on SuSE. This is great since Sony claims that it needed Windows Media Player. Turns out it don't I guess. The thing is standard drag and drop really. That makes me really happy since I can add music when ever I want to.

Supper today was chicken cordon blue. That is a stuffed piece of chicken with ham and Swiss cheese inside. I love these things and the best thing is that they are pretty cheap. I had a nice Hungary Man dinner for lunch. I love the XXL turkey since itâ€™s a huge meal and really good. The weather report for tomorrow is freezing rain and sleet. That is going to be fun!

Well, looks like the memory card world is getting a change again. We now have the new SATA style Compact Flash cards coming out later this year. I kind of hate change when it comes to this type of thing since everything is the old connector and its not backwards compatible.

February 24, 2008

2008-02-24T22:10:00.001-05:00

Well, guess what I did again. I will give you a hint. Linux. Yes, I installed Linux again! I chose a delightful KDE SuSE in a 64 bit flavor. This is working good so far but so far I need to get flash to work on it. This is because Adobe is being cruel and refuses to make a 64bit version for Linux users.

I took a few screen shots and made a special folder for them on the server. Here is the link to the folder index. I will not be making a page for these since its easier to just link to the folders index.

The other thing you may have seen is that I am converting to PHP now. This is so I can use the include command and make my life a lot easier!!! I love the fact that every page that I have doesn't need to updated when I decide to add a new page.

Supper was 2 Big Macs and fries. We got them since we had a coupon that was buy one get one free. Not bad really though I should have said no onions since I can't get the taste out of my mouth now! Oh well could have been worse.

I forgot to add this yesterday. I tried 2 new energy drinks, both Monster. One of them was the Java ones. I decided to try the Irish Blend. It was good but a little too sweet. The second one I tried was a Juiced one called Mixxd which is pretty much a weird flavor. The thing tastes mostly like grape juice with some under tastes I can't describe.

February 23, 2008

2008-02-23T22:13:00.001-05:00

I have been thinking about this. The articles section contains some pretty useful stuff so here is an idea that will make it more accessible to everyone. Starting now, whenever I post a new article, I will also put it in to that days blog entry as well. I will use a slightly different method though. There is going to be a short description of the article. This also gives me a place to put the announcement for it.

Sine it has been 2 weeks tomorrow, I have decided that I will just use the iPaq until Circuit City decides to transfer the warranty so I can get these buttons fixed! I also want to use it since the battery is shot on my Acer. I know I still have my T20 but its getting to be a pain taking any laptops with me. This is because they take time to start up.

The only bad things about my iPaq is that the battery is pretty much shot. I'm thinking of picking up the 3400 MAH battery from Lion Battery for 75 bucks. The only bad thing about that battery is that it will make the already big iPaq bigger! The other problem would be that I also can use a new case for it. Actually, I don't even have a case come to think of it!

I am pretty picky when it comes to such stuff as a case. I like generic pouches mostly since they are universal really. That is very handy when you have several devices. I use to have a very nice Sony case for my Clies. The only thing I didn't like was the belt loop as I prefer a clip for when I'm not wearing a belt. The Sony had one thing I loved a lot though. The case zippered up! The zipper broke and I never found a case I liked.

I have too say though, the iPaq has one of the best styluses I have ever used though. Its plastic but HP was smart enough to use a really stiff plastic that doesn't have the annoying flex to it. Its also very nice sized and feels GREAT in your hand. I wrote my review of the iPaq with it too. I still prefer a full sized keyboard.

Supper was pot pies today. The bad thing is that they tasted kind of salty so I ended up throwing most of mine away. I think I am getting sick since nothing was really appealing to me today. We got about 5 inches of snow.

February 22, 2008

2008-02-22T22:14:00.001-05:00

Well, it snowed! I am not sure hoe much and its still coming down so I will report the snow fall amounts tomorrow! I made a little snow man since I was bored today but it didn't come out to great though. Here is a picture that I took of it on my back porch.

I have to say that the bug APC battery I picked up last year comes in handy sometimes. Especially when you don't feel like using the charger on your laptop when your on the couch. I hate having to plug in sometimes and its also good for when your at a friends house and don't have a plug to use. I just wish that it lasted a little longer really.

I want to say a little something about the articles I am working on now. One of them is going to be an energy drink guide. This will be the ones that I have tried and liked. This article will be updated as I try new ones. I will also try to list the taste and the caffeine content of them when I can. This will contain a small section of my favorites.

The next article I am working on is going to be a Wiki style page titled Computers in TV and Movies. This page will not be editable but you can submit the information to me. The way I plan on doing this will be links to the part of the page. I have to learn how to do an link that goes to part of the page though however so this page is going to take a long time to get done.

The next one that I am working on is going to really piss off Mac users. It is titled Living in an iWorld and will take some serious jabs at Apple ruining the market. So if you LOVE Apple, maybe you should stay away from this one since I can't stand Apple! I would like to keep a neutral stance on the site but hey, its my site!

One thing I have always wondered is why these damn Necco hearts are so addictive! I start munching on these things and I can't stop! These things hurt my teeth too! They need to start making them soft! We had 2 bags of ones that were soft and really good. I also noticed that a lot of them are not even readable really!

Supper today was frozen pizza since my dad came home late with the weather today. It was the rising crust DiGiorno pizza. I like this pizza since the sauce is not spicy like on some frozen ones. It also has good cheese.

February 21, 2008

2008-02-21T22:16:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to me!

Well, today is my birthday and as I said before I got my Walkman S616F. I also got 25 bucks from my grandparents so it was a good year. Last year I got my VX Revolution and HP PhotoSmart D7360.

Weather tomorrow is taking a turn for the worst. I will post the winter storm warning here:
"SNOW WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA AFTER MIDNIGHT...AND CONTINUE INTO FRIDAY. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES ARE EXPECTED BY DAYBREAK. THE HEAVIEST SNOW IS EXPECTED TO FALL FROM FRIDAY MORNING INTO MID AFTERNOON...WITH TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 5 TO 8 INCHES BY LATE AFTERNOON. SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN WILL LIKELY MIX WITH THE SNOW DURING THE AFTERNOON... ESPECIALLY OVER SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF THE WARNING AREA...WHERE A LIGHT COATING OF ICE IS POSSIBLE. THE SNOW AND MIXED PRECIPITATION WILL BEGIN TO TAPER OFF ON FRIDAY EVENING... WITH ANOTHER INCH OR TWO OF SNOW ACCUMULATION POSSIBLE FRIDAY NIGHT."
So you can see we are getting quite the storm!

Supper today was stuffed peppers. I don't eat the peppers since I don't really like them. I do love the meat balls that my dad stuffs them with though!

I have been going into items in Disgaea to try and level my guys up a bit now. That is a really good game and its defiantly addictive! I found a trick too. I can go into cheap and easy items and when I subdue a specialist, move it to a item I need.

February 20, 2008

2008-02-20T22:19:00.001-05:00

I have to say that today was a fun day. I decided that I am going to start messing around in the item world on Disgaea. This is because I want to get my stats up a bit since I have been facing some game over lately. I need to get some better attacks since that also helps me level up my mainpeople.

Supper was Salisbury steak again. This time a little different though since we added some canned mushrooms with it. They were very good this way. Weather report is snow on Friday now. Rumor is 2/4 inches of snow. We shall see what happens since they are wrong a lot. We may get nothing or we may get a foot! Who knows!

I have to say that solitaire on Windows Mobile is EVIL! I lose so many times when I play on the Pocket PC. I have to say though I was really shocked last night. I played an half hour with not a single win then I got 5 in a row! I think it is pretty shocking to say the least since I lose so much more. I lose a lot on the NEC too.
Tomorrow is my birthday!

February 19, 2008

2008-02-19T22:21:00.002-05:00

Well first thing is I have to say that the rumored HP UMPC is starting too look tempting. It is more an EEE killer. The thing has a 8.9" screen with a WXGA resolution of 1366x766 with a scratch proof coating on it. This is very tempting as the rumor is 600 or under. If it is this will be mine by Christmas!

The site has been suffering a little now that I have new games. Disgaea is more addictive then Wipeout Pulse. The thing I like about the Wipeout series is that they are fun games that you can pick up and play for a few minutes rather then get sucked into the storyline of an RPG game. This includes SRPG games like Disgaea. The thing that makes this game really fun for me is that its all battles and not traveling. One of the things that annoyed me about Final Fantasy was when you are traveling and you keep having random battles. This is not the case in Disgaea!

I want to get to work on the computers page now and let the articles wait since I have the introduction done and one article. The thing is that I have been so wrapped up in everything else. I would love to get the page done but I end up getting distracted. I am placing the old one in its place for now until I get It done.

Supper today was hot dogs and home made French fries. My dad gets some really big potatoes from work that make great fries! We had some gravy that we got cheap so we made that too. We had Nathans hot dogs since we had gotten the big pack at Sam's Club that time. Snow showers tomorrow and still calling for the mix on Saturday.

February 18, 2008

2008-02-18T22:22:00.001-05:00

Well I have to say that Disgaea is one addictive game! It was worth the 40 bucks but I would have liked it to be 30 since I think that is a great price for a PSP game to be. I am leveling up a bit since the level cap is 9,999 instead of 99 or even 999. I also found that if you toss an enemy into the base panel, you have a chance of capturing them and using them to do your bidding.

Supper was beef stew today. Came out a little watery but otherwise great! I just wish it was a little thicker though. Weather is calling for light wintery mix on Saturday but you can never go by that when it's a week away if you ask me. I have to say that since winter is almost over I do not really care much now.

February 17, 2008

2008-02-17T22:23:00.002-05:00

I got my second game today. It’s a strategic role playing game. So this is not like a turn based role playing game since you can move around and then attack instead of just attack and attack and attack! This is a fun thing and was worth the 40 bucks to me. I may buy the Final Fantasy Tactics after I beat this game.

So I dug out the iPaq while I wait to get it fixed and the battery is pretty trashed. I was playing with WiFi for a few minutes and it drained 10 percent in 5 minutes. I am thinking of getting an extended battery since I kind of need to now. I am still waiting to see when I will be sending the thing out.

I had turkey for supper today. Very good turkey too! It was a Butter Ball one. The only thing I like more then turkey like this is open face turkey samiches. I just wish we had some stuffing for it. Weather tonight is just rain.

February 16, 2008

2008-02-16T22:26:00.001-05:00

Well, I did finally get the buttons right now at least. I think they look a little better then the basic header 3 links I had before. I have been thinking of using some new tricks. I want to learn PHP. It has ways that you can include a file instead of making them on every page.

You may have noticed the automatic sizing now. I just removed the width stuff from the CSS file and now it doesn't resize the site. This is good since I hated that but I didn't know that it wasn't needed to make the navigation bar work right. My friend Nathan's brother is the one who helped me so I want to thank you Kyle. If you don't read my blog, I know Nathan does and he will tell you for me.

Well I only got one of the games I wanted, they didn't have the other one. I got Wipeout Pulse. Yes I know I already have the first one, Wipeout Pure but these games are a lot of fun. The people who work at these game stores can be pretty stupid sometimes. The one lady there said that the PSP has been out for four years when it has only been out since 2005 in the US.

Supper today was Old Country Buffet. Very good today too, they had the chicken and dumplings this time. I mixed it with some mashed potatoes but I used too much potatoes and it didn't taste too good. I got the usual barbecue chicken and ice cream too. The weather for tomorrow is rain only.

February 15, 2008

2008-02-15T22:27:00.001-05:00

Well, I have to say that I got a new energy drink today first. It’s a Monster Java one. It is a nonalcoholic white Russian. These by them selves are not new but this is the first time I seen the new flavors. There are 2 more that I didn't get to try. They are Irish blend and nut up. These are Irish cream and hazelnut.

I have to say that web design is not a fun thing sometimes. I ended up trying a Web 2.0 look but I do not like the look much so I am trying to get rid of the blue border. Please pardon the mess!

Supper today was a Hungry Man XXL Turkey dinner. This one is my favorite one since I eat everything. I like to mix the potatoes and stuffing with gravy together since the potatoes are a little dry by themselves.

I am getting 2 games for my PSP tomorrow. I will post them when I get them since I do not know what will happen yet. I learned that it is better to get PSP games since they are cheaper then a PS3 game for me. I rather drop 60 bucks on 2 games rather then 1 game.

February 14, 2008

2008-02-14T22:29:00.002-05:00

Ok, little update on what I said yesterday. The Xbox 360 failure rate, according to a post on Engadget, is 16%. That is not as high as I said yesterday but if you ask me, anything over then 5% is unacceptable. Anything over 15% and no way I am going to risk it.

I have to say that I chose to break up the rants into sections since it would be way to long and take forever to get it done. I have a bunch of stuff set up and I will post them as I finish it. I have to say that I really enjoy doing the rants since I get to vent about issues. I also have some that are article styled rants.

Supper today was Burger King. I got the king sized Chicken Tendergrill sandwich. I love the chicken since its not breaded, only grilled. I do not get Burger King often since it is expensive. We are supposed to get snow this weekend. As to how much I do not know. It is suppose to come Sunday into Monday.

February 13, 2008

2008-02-13T22:34:00.001-05:00

Well today was wet. It rained all day then we got a little bit of snow that fell heavy. We got 5 inches according to the weather. It didn't last and now we have about 2 inches, one of which is fresh. Supper was haddock breaded and fried with melted butter on it. It was very good and didn't have a nasty taste like some fish can get.

My dad was thinking of picking up an Xbox 360 but they seem to be more failures then anything. We read that the failure rate is 61%. So you have almost a 3 in 4 chance of failure. Great hardware eh? Why doesn't anyone have a class action suit against Microsoft?

This first rant is going to be big. The outline is about 4 pages long. I keep adding to it too so sorry for the long write time.

February 12, 2008

2008-02-12T22:39:00.001-05:00

It snowed! I won't have a measurement until tomorrow but looks like we got about 3 or 4 inches. We are suppose to get more tonight with a possible mix. Supper was fried chicken and Kraft Macaroni and cheese. The fried chicken is just breaded with seasoned breadcrumbs. I love it like this!

Went out today, the roads weren't the best but we figured it would be better then going out tomorrow. I have to wonder though… When people horde for a storm, why is it milk and bread? I don't see how this will be good since its just bread and milk.

I have to say the first rant will be big. Once I finish this I will work on the computers page. I know this is taking a really long time but you cant rush perfection now can you?

I found out that my Rio Cali can do a 4GB SD card!

February 11, 2008

2008-02-11T22:35:00.002-05:00

Well, I decided that I will be doing the Computers page a little different then planned. It will be a page linking to others but I will use categories. I will just list what I had on the category pages for ease. I do not feel up to making tons of pages that only contain a little text and will allow me to get it done faster!

Well, supper today was raviolis and very good ones too! We got the large ones this time instead of the small ones. I don't know if this is why they were better then when we usually get them. Though there is just a chance that we got a really good batch.

SNOW! Yes, I did say SNOW! We are getting a potential 7 inches plus tomorrow! This is depending on how the storm tracks. If it tracks one way, we can get a lot. The funny thing is that last year, on Valentines Day, we got a pretty bad storm too!

I found something today. I will leave the guessing up to you!

I have some current events stuff for today. Think of it as me sort of reviving the news section of the site… I will not be linking to the stories since they are only on Endadget or Mobility Site anyway.

It seems that BlackBerry users are having yet more problems with the service. Seriously I would love to know how the service goes down so often. It seems that its either BlackBerry outage or ATT Wireless data outages…

Microsoft is taking over the market it seems! They purchased the SideKick maker Danger. This means that it is very likely that they will make a Windows Mobile SideKick. Apple better start watching they're six! Even Sony Ericsson is going to the Windows side!

This one I will link to because it has a picture needed to be seen to read this. PSP Mock Up This thing looks nice but a nightmare to use. First of all, I am going to keep this short: I like the current PSP. I would just like a second analogue stick and more games.

February 10, 2008

2008-02-10T22:40:00.001-05:00

I am working on the first general rant for this site. I have a large outline ready and I am doing the article now. I also have to work on the computers page so I am keeping quite busy. I just want to say that i want to get the first article done soon and the computers page can wait since that is going to have a lot of information on it.

Here is what i am going to do. I will work on putting some of the stuff on the page but they will not be links. It will be just what I own. How does that sound? Good? Good! I want to get the page up quick I really do but I also want to get the article up fast.

I want to say that today was a fun day. Not in the sense that I did something fun but we got some interesting weather here today. We got THUNDER SNOW! That is a snow storm where there is thunder and lightning. Its a heavy snow too. Overall, I think we got about an inch most.

Supper today was ham and potato salad. I love the Cooks ham. They have to be one of, if not the best, ham I ever had. Potato salad was home made and really good. Its Hellmans Mayonaise with potatoes, hard boiled eggs, and celery. Its very good on a sandwhich too.

I have been using my NEC more lately. I want to give it some more use since I haven't been using it much since I got out of school.I want to try and get a newer one like a 900c or anything with an ARM processor instead of MIPS. I would only take another MIPS processor based one if it was a VGA or larger screen.

I called about the iPaq warranty so I am getting it fixed apparantly. I just need to wait for michelle to transfer the warranty to me, them to send me the box, send it be fixed, then wait for it. I need to get a new battery since mine is practically on its deathbed so I will get a extended battery most likely. I also want to get a new stylus since the tip on mine is messed up a bit.

February 9, 2008

2008-02-09T22:42:00.001-05:00

You may have noticed the new page I added. This page is going to be where I post rants and articles. You can find more information on the new section when you see the first one that I put up, depending on when I actually finish the first one. One thing to note is these will not be daily! Whenever I have the urge to write one, I will and it will be dated once finished and then uploaded. Please note that at the time of writing this, the first one to be uploaded is planned to be posted on Sunday, February 10, 2008 but may be posted before or after this date.

I have really been working on the site lately. Adding a new page though is a major job since I need to add it on EVERY page I have on this site. The includes every single blog entry. This is one reason I like to use the category page. Anyway, expect some more additions as time goes on. I am still working on trying to get the computers page ready. I have owned a lot of stuff so its taking quite a while to even list the stuff let alone make the pages for them. I may just make a page of what I have with small descriptions if I can not get the motivation to make all these pages.

We got about an inch of snow today as forecasted. I was really hoping for more though. We didn't get the rain they said we were going to get so that’s good. The artichokes today were a little tough this time so we won't be buying them again probably unless they are really big or look really fresh. I was kind of upset with these because I was really in the mood for them too.

February 8, 2008

2008-02-08T22:43:00.001-05:00

Well, I will be adding a new section to the site soon. It is going to be an article page. It will deal with stuff like "How to buy a laptop" and maybe some software how to guides. I want to post some specialized rants there also with topics. The section may also contain general rants instead of in the blog section of the site.

I plan on working on the computers page tonight. I want to get it done soon since I have a teaser page up. I did the teaser page since the link was already there and I figured if anyone clicked it, I would just put the coming soon page up. I have to say I am pretty lazy with updating the site some days and I am trying to get into a better update schedule.

I had tacos for supper. Weather for tomorrow is snow to rain and about an inch of snow accumulating. Then light snow that night. Going to be fun! We are having artichokes tomorrow and not going out.

February 7, 2007

2008-02-07T22:44:00.002-05:00

Well, I decided to type this up on the NEC for a change. I started to save files in rich text format instead of Word files. That works better because some stuff can't open a Word file saved on the NEC. My iPaq is like that. I think it is because the NEC is so old that the file is not compatable with newer software.

Some good news for the site today... I fixed the T20 review. It took me a little while but its done. I have some obcessive traits when it comes to my code. I like to have everything perfect with spaces in between lines of code like header and paragraph. So now everything is fixed.

I have decided how I want to do the computer pages. It will be mostly a spec list for the device, maybe a little descripton, and wheter or not I still have it. I also want to do maybe some review work on some other stuff I own, like a flashback review of the NEC.

You know, I am so sick of the commercial for the sauceless hotwings at KFC. The whole point of a hot wing is the sauce if you ask me. The sauce is the sole thing that makes a hot wing a hot wing! Plus not to mention the commercial is pretty annoying. Its also on constantly.

I will be calling in the iPaq warranty this weekend possibly. I will probably get another HX2495B but its better then nothing. I will probably use it more since I have Windows XP installed agian. I wish that I had Windows Mobile 6 instead of 5 since its the newer software. I also like the iPaq 100 series since it has SDHC.

Supper today was Tyson chicken fingers and home made French fries. Very good! I made some cheese sauce with Velveta. Dipping the chicken in the cheese sauce is pretty good too. The potatoes we used were pretty big so there was a lot of long fries.

February 06, 2008

2008-02-06T22:46:00.001-05:00

Why is playing with old operating systems so much fun? I installed the Macintosh Emulation software again. So now I can play with a Mac OS 7 machine. Sure its really old but its still fun to mess around with. Since I have a way to extract files, I can do a post for the Blog in the emulater. Pretty cool if you ask me. I will have too see what kind of programs I can find for it. I know that I will be able to find old games for sure.

The bad thing about running a Mac in emulation is that the computer starts to heat up. I can get to 71C when running it sometimes so I lock mine to 800MHZ like I do on battery to keep the heat down. This also makes it feel more like an old Mac since it runs a little slower.

I have a 500MB "hard drive" made for it so I have a lot of room in case I find any cool programs. I could also make more drives. There is a 2GB limit so if I need to, I can make a 2GB one thats seperate from one that I made. What I really like is the fact that I can take the files off the image and even add files to it. The one that I normally use is not working correctly so I have a demo of TransMac installed. If you know how to fix HFVExplorer to make coping work correctly, please Email me so I can use that. I only have 30 days on the trial program.

I have decided that I will be adding a few new pages soon. One of them is going to be a page of facts. The thing is that I do not know how true they are though. I will post them from a thread on a forum I am, and a urban legends site that tells whether they are true or not. From them, I will post the true ones and maybe some others since they can be very interesting. They will have links to the page.

I have started listing the computer stuff I have and will be ready to start making the pages soon. I am still thinking about how to do these pages since I don't have pictures of everything and I do not want to post pictures from Google Images or anything. I will have that done soon I hope. I am busy doing other stuff like messing with Mac OS 7.

I am also thinking of learning some new tricks in HTML. I would love to learn image wrapping so I can have a picture with text on the side. This would make the site look a little nicer to me. I also want to redo the home page to make it better. Here are some ideas I have for the site...

I can remove the side bar on the homepage and just post the links in the center of the page. This is one thing I don't really want to do becuase it could mess up CSS on the site. If I do end up doing it this way, I will remove the links from the side bar and everything will be listed in the center of the page.

Another option is that I can have an updates link in the index. This option is putting the updates in the center of the index page. This would be the blog pages, anything I am currently working on, and maybe some announcements for when I will be adding stuff. This is a problem though as they will make the index page a lot bigger then it is now. I would like to keep that page to a minimum.

The third option I am considering is making a horizontal navigation bar and removing the CSS stuff to make the pages work better on older browsers like the one on my NEC MobilePro 780. Maybe I will do it, maybe I won't. I do like the idea of having the links on a side bar since it makes the site look better. I would like to use images for the links but that would be a bit of a pain since I would need to make them and add them to every page.

I doubt I will do much on the site really since it does look nice they way it already is. If you have an opinion, you can Email me your site ideas.

Weather today was dry for the most part but towards about 7 we started getting some thunder storms. Dinner was steak, baked potato, and a salad. I make a mean salad. Cucumbers, chick peas, and croutons drowned in balsamic vinegar.

February 5, 2008

2008-02-05T22:49:00.001-05:00

Well, looks like I finished the review for the Sony Walkman S616F today. I decided to just touch on the interface and not take pictures of it since it would be a pain to take them in the dark with no flash and crop um down to size. I also decided to just use Picasa for the photos.

I also decided to start on the computers page. What I will do is post it as I work on it. I have a lot to do with this page so I will explain what it will be. It will be a index page like the Blog is but each link will be a page on something I own or have owned. It will include PDA and MP3 player related stuff as well as my computers.

I am also planning some other stuff for the fun stuff page. I want to add some neat stuff like weird or fun facts. I will be doing a lot of work on this site this year. I don't know what will happen since I have a lot to do.

Weather was wet today. Rained off and on, and will tonight and tomorrow. FUN! Supper today was Wendy's. We got those dollar double cheese burgers and fries. Very good! I really enjoyed them much more then McDonalds.

February 4, 2008

2008-02-04T22:52:00.001-05:00

Well, I added a teaser page for the computer section and removed all old links for the news page since I removed it. I also started on the review of the Walkman and removed the old T20 review until I fix it.

Supper today was the Salisbury patty with steak dust on it again. Not much on the weather today. We just got some snow showers. Showers tomorrow with possible thunder! FUN!

Here are a few little impressions with the Sony so far: I like it! I would prefer a mini USB cable but the battery lasts a long time so its not a problem. Its small and fits very nicely on a neck strap. I also think the volume is quite good as I am not really using much, maybe a forth of the total. Look for the review soon.

February 3, 2008

2008-02-03T22:53:00.001-05:00

Good news everyone! I took pictures of the Walkman and started a review. So far I really like it.

Since I want to wait a bit for a proper review I want to post a little first impressions on it. Consider it a 2 part review. I will post the part 1 when ever I get it done.

Supper today was home made Buffalo wings. For those who don't know what they are, they are pretty much chicken wings in hot sauce. Very good! I had a Hungry Man Turkey XXL for breakfast too. Pretty good day all in all. Snow to wintery mix is called for tomorrow though I don't think it will even add up.

We have a new link submitted. Its my British friend Simon "Pip" Richards blog Simon, LOL. Be warned… He is British after all so he may pull some Monty Python on you!

February 2, 2008

2008-02-02T22:54:00.002-05:00

Well, today is a good day. I have some really good news! For one, a certain page that I was working on finally got finished! Yes, I finally have the links page done and I am working on the next page now about computers.

Secondly, I got to go for Chinese food today. I love going to the buffet. I also like sushi but the only one I really get is rice with crab meat on top with a band of seaweed. I really like the fruit they have too. Today they had kiwi and mango slices.

The third and final thing is that I got my birthday gift a little early. I got a new MP3 player. I chose a 4GB Sony Walkman S616. It was pretty well priced too. It was 120 at Target but Circuit City price matched it. I may post a review on it, or at the very least, a general overview of it.

February 1, 2008

2008-02-01T22:51:00.001-05:00

Well something amazing happened once again. I went back to Windows again. I am going to just run a virtual Linux installation in Virtual Box since it is so much easier to use that way. I don't need to install anything and when something messes up, I don't need to care since its not the only operating system on my laptop.

Dinner today was breaded fish fillets and fries. Not much since dad got home a little late. Weather was a mush of ice. Fun.

January 31, 2008

2008-01-31T13:03:00.001-05:00

Well, I decided to install Ubuntu again. Dream Linux just did not want to install for me. So far I have not noticed any major problems but only time will tell I suppose. I used the firmware option this time so we shall see what kind of difference it decides to make.

I also decided to explain my idea about the slimmed down operating system a little more. This is because a friend pointed out the XP embeded thing. The plan also was pretty hardware related also. The thing would have a processor that could run on very little power and make no heat. It would also be thin and get 10 plus hours of battery life.

Supper today was steak in an oil broth. very good but hard to explain it. Had real mashed potatoes with this, not the instant ones though I do like them too. Weather is a mix crap bag to rain and maybe snow tomorrow. They said if anything does add up it will be less then an inch only.

January 30, 2008

2008-01-30T13:04:00.001-05:00

Not much went on today really. I did the firmware update on the PSP to 3.90 so now I have Skype. Shame they left out the text part of it and you need a headset for it. I always do the firmware updates for it since you never know what they add that isn't formally listed.

Really windy here today. Nothing really good in the forecast snow wise for the next 10 days, but they are saying we will get a mix on Friday. Supper was pork chops with the steak dust, those little potato things that you bake in the oven, and spinach.

I am addicted to solitaire now! Why must it be in Windows!!! I am also trying to get a Linux distribution called Dream Linux to work. This looks a lot like Mac OS X and is based off Debian like Ubuntu but not based off Ubuntu itself.

January 29, 2008

2008-01-29T22:36:00.000-05:00

Well, today was fun. We got a little freezing rain today. We decided to run up for another half ton of pellets for the stove today. We decided to get them today so we don't need to go tomorrow. We ended up getting McDonalds for supper today. I always get 2 double cheese burgers and fries. I love the fries at McDonalds!
I have been thinking, there are some technologies that I think should make a come back. They could use some changes though for the market today. One of these is the Handheld PC. What is a Handheld PC? Most people would be thinking something along the lines of an OQO or Samsung Q1 Ultra. The Handheld PC is actually a PDA that runs a version of Windows CE.
Some of the things that made the Handheld PC good was the inclusion of Windows CE. CE doesn't mean anything according to Microsoft but it could mean Compact Edition. It is similar to a Windows 9x interface. They had large screens and a keyboard. They had a PC card slot and a CF slot for expansion and most had a touch screen.
Of course, this needs to be changed to be successful in the market now. These changes would need to make it closer to a real Windows OS. My idea is to make a stripped down version of XP. Make it be able to run on a low power processor to make battery life longer and generate less heat. They would have to be cheap also.
Another option is to make these a "classic PDA" that has a thumb operated keyboard and a 5" screen. A classic PDA is one that doesn't have a integrated Phone. These could be a success if you include a hard drive and market it for a multimedia handheld. Windows based handhelds have a lot of nice media players, some of which are even free.
I also want to see classic PDA handhelds regain market share. I do not want a PDA phone. I do not want to be tied to a contract. Would I like a contract free one with unlimited net and text messages? Yes I would love that. They are good devices but not for me. I am happy with a phone free PDA. Plus the classic models tend to have better hardware really.
One thing I would love to see come back to popularity is not a technology thing at all. I miss fountain pens being common. I can not write with a ball point pen for long without getting sore hands. I also think that a fountain pen is really nice to write with since you can choose different inks. I don't really like the cartridge fillers as much as I like bottle fillers. Maybe I am weird but I think a nice fountain pen is key to good handwriting skills. You can choose a nib that fits your writing style. Like I prefer a finer nib since I write kind of small. Everyone is different and that is why they have so many types of nibs, inks, and pens. Sure, a quality fountain pen may cost a lot but they last a lot longer then a ball point will! Bottled ink is also better for the environment since you aren't throwing away plastic.
There is one reason that a fountain pen is amazing. There is a brand of ink called Noodlers. They make a series of "Bullet Proof" inks. They are impossible to remove from paper without ruining the paper first. They have a black one that is prefect for everyday use too. Its also cheap at about 10 dollars for 3 ounces of ink that will last you quite awhile.
I forgot to mention that I played UT3 yesterday. I have been playing ONLINE too! I am starting to get good too. I played team death match yesterday, and today I played some capture the flag. I play with my cousin a lot too. Practice makes perfect!!!

January 28, 2008

2008-01-28T22:35:00.000-05:00

Well, good news everyone! I finished the 404 error page! I am going to begin working on the following pages when I get a chance to.
About
Computers
Links
Fun Stuff
I may add some new pages, it all depends what I feel like doing. I will post update information on the blog as usual.
Looks like Bluray is going to win the format war! Its about time that Sony gets something right! I think the format war was stupid to begin with since they cost pretty much the same and Bluray holds A LOT more data. About 13GB more to be exact.
Supposed to be 44 tomorrow so no chance of snow it seems. I would love to get some snow before the end of the year but I doubt we are going to get a nice snow storm before spring comes. I would love to see a good foot plus of snow.
Supper today was chicken stew. It is pretty much just chicken, potatoes, and carrots, in tomato sauce. The chicken gets really soft and moist this way too. Throw on a little cheese and its amazing! I love it since the sauce doesn't actually go under the skin of the chicken.

January 27, 2008

2008-01-27T22:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I played about an hour of UT3 today. I played 3 offline 10 minute death matches and then 2 online ones. Both totaled up to about 1 hour of play. I was going to play more but I was doing really bad online. I need to practice more!
I had chicken soup for supper today. This is the third time my dad made it and it finally came out good this time. This will be my lunch for the week again. Weather will be pretty plain tomorrow it seems. There is no snow in the forecast so who knows what is going to happen and when it will happen…
I am still working on the links page. It takes awhile to do it when you don't do much work on it really. It is funny really since I am really bored and I don't work on the site. I want to have it done soon. I never finished the 404 page either so I want to do some work on that. I am also thinking of reworking the navigation. I don't know when this will happen so don't start thinking it will be soon.

January 26, 2008

2008-01-26T22:33:00.000-05:00

Well, I think I am starting to get sick now. I have had a fever off and on the past few days and now I feel like I have a cold. I am sneezing a little and I have a runny nose. This seems to be a very annoying cold right now. I don't have much of an appetite either.
I have been looking at getting a new game but a lot of them are kind of crappy really. I do not care much for shooter games with a plot. I know Call of Duty is supposed to be a really good series and they have 3 cheap sometimes. I am really shocked by the lack of role playing games really.
Well, I found out how the warranty works now. I send them the IPAQ, they will try and fix it. If they can't fix it, they will look for another HX2495B. If they can not find another one I will get a IPAQ 110 since it is the only real replacement model.
I would like the 110 since it has SDHC and Windows Mobile 6 but I have been hearing that the screen is not as sensitive as other PDAs. I will just have to see what happens. I will be sending it in once the HP warranty runs out in about 2 weeks.
Had hamburgers and French fries for supper tonight. Had some fun today! We had TiVo'ed a Blue Man Group concerted on HDNET. WOW! This was way better the using YouTube!

January 25, 2008

2008-01-25T22:32:00.000-05:00

Well, Engadget posted the MacBook Error review today. They took forever to pretty say its crap. I have to say that a 13.3" screened laptop is still a 13.3" screened laptop. Being thinner does not make it more portable to me. If you want to be more portable you need to get a smaller screen and not just worry about thickness! Make the battery replaceable too!
I have been thinking of doing a dual boot in my laptops. I would love to try Linux again! Its in my blood! I can not stop loving it. I could probably get something to work on my T20 at least. I will probably try a dual boot system soon but I can use a 40GB drive on the T20 though.
I had hot dogs for supper. I love the Nathans ones the best. I have been thinking of getting the cheese filled ones one of these. Also had Kraft macaroni and cheese with them. I like this one the best. I don't care much for other brands really.

January 24, 2008

2008-01-24T22:31:00.000-05:00

I love to have fun on comments on sites. Mac users are so easy to stir up and manipulate. People hate when you start a flame war but this is just so much fun! I don't do this to make fun of products as much as I do it to have a good laugh at the Mac user base.
Today was pretty much boring. Some snow showers all day. I have been setting up my ThinkPad T20 again. I decided that it is a good computer even if it is a little slow. I plan on getting some more RAM for it soon. I do not want to just toss out a laptop because it’s a little slow. It’s a lot better for relaxing since there is no touchpad.
I also have been thinking of trying to dual boot Linux on this T20. I do not know what I will use for it since it is a little on the low side as far as RAM goes. I have used Ubuntu on it before with some success but I am thinking that I may just stay with Windows XP since it works well enough for me.
I am thinking that I may stop checking Engadget anymore. Its starting to become more Mac news then anything. I am so sick of seeing like 20 posts on Apple stuff that could be pretty much one post. Keep annoying me an I will pretty much not even check the site anymore, nor will I link to the site. Sorry Engadget, you must be paid a lot by Apple!
And to any Apple fanboys who disagree with me… I hope you like be owned by Steve Jobs. I am happy to have free thoughts and choose my hardware based on reviews and quality rather then if its made by Apple or not.
Supper tonight was Pierogi. My dad deep fried them this time and poured melted butter over them. This is a new way to do it and very good!

January 23, 2008

2008-01-23T22:30:00.000-05:00

Well, here is an idea. If I get a gift card from the iPAQ instead of anything else, my dad said I can have his desktop and he will take the gift card. This is an idea but I don't know what will even happen with the warranty.
Why would I want a desktop? Simple! I will be able to run Linux on it and I rarely take my laptop off my desk anyway. I will need to make sure that I have the room for it though. The only bad thing is that I use my headphones more then anything. I do not have any use for speakers really.
There is one problem with the whole iPAQ thing. They have a Classic 111 model on the website.. The thing is that’s it’s a cheaper one then I already have. They may give me this and a 100 dollar gift card for the difference. So we shall just have to wait and see I guess…
Supper was artichokes again! Yes, I know I eat these a lot but you to have to really since the seasons are short. We may even get more on Saturday. Weather update is possible snow showers. We shall see what happens. We get told snow and get nothing a lot so I don't trust the weather much anymore.

January 22, 2008

2008-01-22T22:30:00.000-05:00

Supper today was chicken fingers and French fries. The coating on them was different from when we got them last time. They were not as hard or spicy. I really hope Tyson changed them because I really like them a lot more this way. I never have been a big fan of spicy food really.
I wanted to keep this off the blog until I actually got it but I told a few people on AIM and stuff so I figure since it didn't go as planned I have to wait till towards the end of February, I will just post it here. Well, this is going to be a long one so you should go get a nice cold drink.
Lets start from the beginning shall we? I decided to put the iPaq away due to the button problem. I had m friend Michelle send me the warranty information. I waited until today from a week ago to get the information.
I was told it was from Best Buy as my friend had made a mistake. So I figured that I had 400 bucks towards a new laptop. I found a nice Acer Extensa 5420 with a MAD Turion X2 1.9GHZ, 2Gb of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive. It was a 15.4" screen with an ATI Radeon Xpress 1250M. It looked great.
Since I was still waiting for the warranty, a nice HP was on sale this week. This was my new choice. Same stuff but a 14.1" screen and a NVidia GeForce GO 7150M. It is the HP Pavilion DV2715nr. The two laptops are Best Buy exclusives.
I waited through Sunday and yesterday for the mail to come today. So, the mail was late today and I suffered through that ordeal and what happened when it finally came? I find out that it was a Circuit City warranty and not Best Buy like I thought it was!
So this brings me to the next point. I go up Circuit City and I am told that you have to call the warranty service up and they will go through trouble shooting and such. So now I call up and then I am told that since it still has a manufactures warranty, I need to wait until February 5, 2008.
So now I a waiting until then to call up. They will go through the trouble shooting and they will send out a box for me to ship it to them. So now they will try and fix it. If they can't fix it, I will get either a replacement or store credit.
So now I am stuck waiting a lot more then I planned on. So I may just get something else instead of a new laptop. I will see what they have if and when I get the credit. If I don't find anything good I may just wait and see what happens. I will have to see if the credit ever expires.
Well, I am also getting sick I think. I have a slight fever right now. I don't have a runny nose nor am I sneezing though I am cold and tired. I am hoping that this is the most I get since I really do not want to be sick right now. I hate having a cold as it ruins everything on me.
We are suppose to get light snow tomorrow night! Who knows how much snow we will even get, since we didn't get what was supposed to come today. They change the forecast a lot anymore it seems. I would like to get a god few feet since we haven't gotten one good storm all year!

January 21, 2008

2008-01-21T22:29:00.000-05:00

Well, today was a cold one! The temperature was in the teens but the wind chill was in the singles! Supper was the Salisbury patties with steak dust and a nice big baked potato! The best thing about the potato is they can be made so many ways. We also had corn.
I did play a little Unreal Tournament 3 today. I set up a hour long death match and I only played 20 minutes. I just couldn't get into the zone! I did some good head shots though. Like 5 in a row! I guess I need to take a longer break so I can get back into wanting to plat the game more. I don't play online since it is too hard to be fun.
I am making a new link to this site. I will post the link at the end of the month and this one will stay active until the end of next month. The new one is much shorter but retains my name. It still points to my server so both links are technically active now.
I have to say I really like the new series based on Terminator. Its on Fox Mondays at 9PM. I have to say I like it since its an action show. Its based off the movies. I have my TiVo set to record it even though I watch it as it records. It is good since I have a backup in case I miss the show.

January 20, 2008

2008-01-20T22:28:00.000-05:00

Well, soup today! Dad made chicken soup but it came out bad so he tossed it and made lima bean soup. That's pretty easy to make and good. Its pretty much the beans, oil, and onion. Not very hard to make but good!
Watched the newest Harry Potter on Bluray and I have to say I found it to be kind of boring and long. It was good towards the end however. I really love the PS3 for Bluray but it is bad with normal DVD up converting.
I got a very annoying canker sore on my cheek! I hate these things so much! They take forever to heal and hurt a lot when you bump them. Mine is in a spot were it is very easy to bump and I can not wait for the thing to die!
I have some more work to do on the links page soon and I really hope I can get it up by the end of the year but I am not making any promises!!! soon. I want this to be a good set of sites that can also serve as a backup for my favorites on FireFox.

January 19, 2008

2008-01-19T22:27:00.000-05:00

Well, it Saturday once again and we went shopping today. We are eating home today since we got artichokes again. I love these things so whenever I get a chance to get them I take it! Sure they are a pain to eat but they are so good that its worth it!
I cut my left index finger while I was taking apart that PDA yesterday so itâ€™s a little annoying to type now until it heals. Its not painful in a sense that I am screaming, its just annoying. Its funny how you don't feel that you got cut until after you notice the cut is there!
I want to announce some changes for the site! I noticed that I accidentally posted the SPB Full Screen Keyboard on the T20 review. Well, I am going to take the T20 review off the site since the thing is pretty old. I have also decided to start fixing the old links page. I have a way to make it alphabetical easier. When you use NotePad++ there is a key combo that swaps lines. Its CTRL + T in case anyone is wondering. There is also a CTRL + D that duplicates the line.

January 18, 2008

2008-01-18T22:23:00.000-05:00

Well, today was a boring day. We went to the grocery store like every Friday. We picked up artichokes for tomorrow again. We had chicken fajitas today. For those who don't know what they are, they are just a soft taco shell with chicken instead of hamburger.
Well, since it has been pretty much 3 weeks since that InterLink came and no answer from the guy in Japan, I decided to have a little fun today! I took it apart and noticed that the thing is unfixable really. I did find some fun stuff out about it though. For one, it has a Toshiba processor. I didn't get it back together 100 percent but its good enough. I will probably toss it now.
I was thinking of this today. They need to make a PDA with a design that is favored to bloggers. I would love a PDA with a keyboard and a large screen with WiFi and Bluetooth. I need some special stuff for mine though, mainly SSH and SFTP support.

January 17, 2008

2008-01-17T22:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I had a boring day so this is not going to be a long one today. I had pasta for supper. My dads is one of the few sauces I actually like. The weather update for today was light snow. Tonight we will get a wintery mix. Joy.
I have to say that Mac users are the most annoying fanboys I have ever seen. They believe anything Steve Jobs says. Mac users think that they are smarter and better then others. I hope you like the battery being sealed into your MacBook Air!

January 16, 2008

2008-01-16T22:06:00.000-05:00

Well, not much happened today. We didn't do much shopping today. We went to Walmart for a few things and to the grocery store. Here is something a little different, I am putting the dinner update here today. I had Artichokes! I love them stuffed with seasoned bread crumbs and Mozzarella cheese.
Well, you can see that the MacBook Air is not the popular! Its funny to say this to me. EVEN THE FANBOYS HATE IT! Thatâ€™s right! Even those die had people who buy anything Apple makes hate this thing! Well Apple, I hope your happy with your decision! You should have just made a small MacBook Pro. With a removable battery!
Something that hit me on Macs. They are hard to clean or upgrade. I don't know for sure but I can replace the hard drive or clean my fans easy. The Acer has vents that are easy to open up. I don't like to let the fan get full of dust and I clean mine often. Maybe its just me, but I take care of my computer. I would rather give up a little design for easy access to key components! Hard drives are not invincible and they will die on you! So why should a manufacturer seal them in? So they can get more money out of you!
Some snow and wintery mix tomorrow night! FUN! I hate the mix crap since its just a waste to me. I would rather have blizzard then a little mix. We may get some good snow fall this year since the big storm of 2007 was on Valentines Day after all!
I went through my folders and sort of disorganized them. Pretty much all I did was remove some sub directorys to make it easier to navigate. Sometimes having stuff organized is too much of a pain. For example, saving a word file would be in several sub folders of my Documents folder. Now its just in one folder so much easier!
I will still keep the sub folders on my Server to keep that a little organized. I did awhile ago get rid of the sub directories for blog though so its just in one folder. Of course I would like to lump them all together but that is a pain since the way I upload the files if right click blog on my website folder on PC and hit send to server.
I also noticed that Windows will not let you change the name of My Documents folder. This really annoyed me! I would rather have my folder be my name and make My Documents as a sub folder that would make it easier for me to navigate. The best I could do is rename the shortcut on my start menu. I guess that will have to be good enough for me.

January 15, 2008

2008-01-15T22:06:00.000-05:00

Well, we all know what today is don't we? Yes, its Macworld! Yes, I know I hate Macs but I will cover it like every other Blog is! First, this is not a live thing like Engadget is doing. Sorry, but I do not have the resources to live blog a keynote since I am kind of far from California. My coverage will be more of a rant then anything.
First thing announced is the Time Capsule. The thing is a simple a network storage device for backup of your Mac using WiFi. That is kind of sad since you can just as easily use a USB hard drive for the same thing. The sad thing is that the USB drive is probably faster then this. They will have 500GB and 1TB sized drives. Not bad on the size, but the thing is that it probably only works with Macs. Plus, I have a 120GB server in my room, I can back up to that just as easy!
The iPod Touch and iPhone ate getting updates. Guess what happens if you own an iPod Touch. YOU HAVE TO PAY 20 BUCKS FOR THE UPDATE! The new buyers will get the update with the iPod but current owners need to pay! Good job Apple, Microsoft let the Zune 30 users upgrade to the firmware from the new Zunes for FREE!
Do you rent movies? Well how would you like to rent a movie with your computer. Thatâ€™s right, you buy the movie for 3 or 4 dollars for standard definition movies and high definition are a dollar extra. You have 30 days to open the file then after you open it, you have 24 hours to watch it. Wow thatâ€™s such a great idea! HEY HERES A BETTER IDEA, WHY DON'T I JUST BUY A DVD OF THE MOVIE AND GET TO KEEP IT? OH WAIT, THAT ISN'T AS COOL AS ITUNES!
The Apple TV was a joke and now they are making version 2! Wow, the change is that it doesn't need a computer. WOW APPLE! I guess this is the future since Apple does everything right. I guess I should throw out my DVD player and PS3 and go buy this device and rent all my movies on iTunes since it is the cool thing to do!
Now we come to MacBook Air. Yes, its called the Air. What the hell is with the name? Well, its THIN, thatâ€™s the thing. Its only .76" thick. WOW who the hell cares? First of all, it costs 1800 bucks for the base model. Thatâ€™s a 1.6GHZ Dual Core. Want faster? Add 300 bucks and you get a 1.8GHZ. Now, there is no optical drive included, but that costs 100 bucks extra. You can also use the drive on your own Mac with special software. Now here is the kicker! The battery, hard drive, and RAM are not user replaceable! You can not buy a new battery and have 2, its inside the sealed case. The RAM is only 2GB and is soldered in too! The HDD is only an iPod classic drive! God, I guess laptops are disposable now? I am but going to pay 130 dollars to send my laptop to Apple for a new battery. Plus the fact that its 1800 bucks to start off!
Supper today was beef stew. Some of the meat was a little tough though. For the most part, the vegetables were a little on the hard side. It was good though. We also has some snow today. Not much, just showers but the trees were all covered.

January 14, 2008

2008-01-14T22:06:00.000-05:00

Well, today feels like a day I want to do a little ranting. I don't know if I have did this before, so here goes!
First, I want to talk about my idea I have for a PDA similar to the Newton. Now I am aware that the Newton was a epic failure, but this is more less an improved version. This would essentially be a small tablet pc like device.
It would run on Windows CE and have around a 5 inch VGA screen. The core software would be similar to the HandHeld PC, but with a few differences. For one, all data input would be screen based, or with an optionally available Bluetooth keyboard. There would be a full screen version of Decuma. This would allow you to input a lot of text at once.
The handheld would also have a version with a slide out thumb board. This would also come in a bundle pack with the Bluetooth keyboard. There would also be an optional cell phone card to add calling and internet access to the device. This would be in a bundle pack or sold separately.
The device would be made for media access and would feature a 80GB hard drive, or 64GB flash SSD if you so chose. The device would also include a copy of TCPMP for movie playback. There would also be a viewer and downloader for YouTube.
The software would also have a specially made version of Office. These would be the full desktop suite of Office 2007, or OpenOffice, depending on what you choose to use. This means that you could leave the laptop at home for the next business trip and only carry around this small device.
The battery life would have to be long enough to keep the device useful but small enough for it to be thin. To combat this, the device would ship would 2 batteries, one normal sized, and one double sized. To make charging easier, the batteries would have a charge port on them instead of just the device. There would be a Y adapter to charge 2 batteries.
Second topic, I want to talk about laptops. Now, I love them but I also hate them. How is this possible? Why would I hate something I love? Well, keep reading!
One thing I hate about my laptops is that they get hot. Now, I can't blame AMD or Intel for this, as this is a flaw of the design laptops use. They can not have the more elaborate cooling systems of a desktop. They can only have a small heat pipe and fan.
What can be done to improve this? Well, not much as far as I know. The one thing that can be done is to use processors that run cooler. They might be able to at most move the intake vents. They place them on the bottom which can restrict airflow. They could be placed on the top above the keyboard though and have the vent output on the back in the middle. This would keep it from burning your legs. This also involves moving the battery on some laptops, such as my Acer, or ports like on my IBM ThinkPad T20.
I also hate the fact that battery life is not very long on some laptops. Some of them get only like an hour and a half, yet some get like 6 hours or more. This is very unbalanced. I know that batteries are expensive but they could maybe be a little bigger! Why not use those new Silver Zinc batteries?
Why are they so awkward to use sometimes? This is more less a personal preference I suppose. I have trouble using them unless I am in a chair or they are on a desk. Why? Well for me, they are hard to position on you lap so that you are comfortable and the laptop is balanced. Then there is also the hot fan blowing on your legs. I donâ€™t see how people can lay down in bed with them either.
I also have to say that you also need to make some sacrifices for owning one. For example, you lose a lot of USB stuff. Sure you can still use that cradle for your PDA but now its in the way since there is cables all over the desk. Plus you only have a few ports to use so now you might need a hub!
Another one is that if the LCD breaks some how, its like 300 bucks for a new one. Plus, once you pick a size, you are stuck with it unless you use an external LCD. Of course, this also goes for the keyboard and mouse. If you don't like them or they break, you need to spend money for a new one or get an external one. Though I do like having my VX Revolution, though I lose a USB port to that!
You also lose some hard drive capacity too. Though this is not a problem for me, since I can make do with a small hard drive just finem some people may need more then what you can get in a laptop. Of course, there is always external hard drives.
The worst one is that they don't have the same stuff you would find in a desktop since they need to have low power consumption. This means that it may not have a faster processor or high end video card. Of course they make gaming laptops.
last but not least, its getting so hard to pick a computer anymore. They have so many different screen sizes, hard drives, and other various little things to choose from. You may want a 12 inch model but someone else may want a 15 inch. There is just to many choices. But hey, at least there is choices unlike Apple computer!
Well, today was more less a mini rant of sorts. I just wanted to give my self something to do today really. We were supposed to get up to 4 inches of snow today and we didnâ€™t get much all day, just a few showers! We were supposed to get a little more tomorrow but that changed to showers only too. Oh well, we did get a little bit!
I tried to take that ThinkPad 570 apart last night and I got all the screws out except for one of them that holds the hinges onto the case. The head is totally stripped and I can not get it out. I am going to try the Dremel trick this weekend or when I get a chance.
So I can assume everyone has heard about the guy who is suing the Yankees because they took steroids. ONLY IN AMAERICA!
For supper today I had a canned chicken sandwich. Its from Sams Club. Its like tuna but chicken. It is really good with a little mayonnaise on it. I like it on crackers too.

January 13, 2008

2008-01-13T22:06:00.000-05:00

There is something that I forgot to add yesterday. They need to make a tabbed file browser. This would be easier since I tend to have a few folders open at a time when I am moving files around. This could be easier since it would only mean one window instead of several.
The one program I don't like tabbed is the instant messenger applications. I use Pidgin, which was GAIM before, for Windows and have used it on Linux. Its a really nice program but the first thing I do is turn off the tabs. This is one thing that annoys me since I have a lot of people I talk to.
Well, I have to say this adapter is annoying me since I can not find the tip for my Acer locally. I checked Circuit City, who I know use to sell tons of Kensington stuff, and they didn't have any. I also checked OfficeMax where I got the adapter. I checked Office Depot though I knew that was a lost cause! I am going to take the thing back, since I don't see a reason to keep it!
We got a print server on sale at Office Depot though. It isn't wireless but I will still be able to use it with my laptop. My dad figures this is easier to get working then the shared printer way. We should have it up by next weekend.
Folding is going well for the PS3. We are up to 5 Work units for the team! I am not leaving it on all night again though however.
Supper today was home made pizza. Came out very good too! We made one broccoli and one plain pizza. Funny thing is I ate pizza all week for lunch and will this week! Good thing I love pizza!

January 12, 2008

2008-01-12T22:06:00.000-05:00

You know, I was thinking about some useful changes for technology. I guess some of these are personal preference changes but they may be beneficial to the average user. Some of these are general changes that would be for any program, but some of these are Linux or Windows specific changes. Some are also PDA or cell phone changes. I will list some of what I am thinking ofâ€¦
First of all, I would like to see a tabbed office suite. Why? Its easier when your doing multiple files. This would also be on PDA office suites too. The main thing is the program could open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, all in the same program. This is also for simpler icons. There could be one icon for the suite instead of one for each program.
Second, I would like too see Microsoft restructure the file system in Windows better. I would also like to see it better then it is in Vista. Vista has the right idea with a folder for the user with your name on it. This is close to the home folder on Linux. I would like to take this a step further and also rearrange the folders for documents, media, and other stuff.
I got a new adapter today! Its a 70W Kensington that can be used in car, airplane, or with a wall. Its more less for my ThinkPad since its also for car use. I will also be getting a tip for my Acer. I noticed Kensington says I need the 120W one but my Acer only uses 65W.
The PS3 has finished one work unit and the second will be be finished by morning. I have decided that I won't use my Acer for this since its being really annoying. I went to resume it and it started over again. I rather use the PS3 since its faster anyway. I may use it if I get a new laptop though.
Supper today was Long John Silvers. Very good and oddly, I am not that thirsty today after eating it. We got the 8 piece meal coupon, 5 fish and 2 chicken. I like the chicken but I think the fish is better personally though I will eat both.

January 11, 2008

2008-01-11T22:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I have soon good news for the people who are Folding at Home. I have the PLAYSTATION THREE folding now! That’s SIX cores of 3.2GHZ each! Wow is that thing fast! What took my Turion a few hours took the PS3 like 30 minutes. Now that is processor power! I would love to see my PS3 owners who read this site use theirs too. I finished 65% of the work unit today and will finish the rest tomorrow. I don't like leaving the PS3 on all the time.
What the hell is with hard games anymore? I was playing Final Fantasy II and now I am pretty much trapped in the dungeon with one of my guys dead and the other three have darkness. I only have 3 high potions left and no MP on anyone. Plus I need to go down like 5 floors of random battle hardness. Sorry if I like easy games but when I see something like this is makes me hate the game a lot. Its just not fun when you have something like this happen to you!
I am thinking of changing the News page to a page dedicated to the Folding at Home information. I will also start working on the links page though I do not know if they will be in order. It is a lot of annoying work to get the links into a alphabetical ordered list with category lists. To make this page easier to code I will use a lot of blank lines to separate links for ordering.
I had a Hungry Man XXL TV dinner today. I love the Turkey one since its 1.5 pounds of food for 5 bucks. Plus they are very easy to make. I like them better then the plain sized one since they don't give you the crappy vegetables. This one is just the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. The one thing I have a problem with is that they don't give you enough gravy. What they should do is have a packet of gravy come with it so you can have extra gravy on the meal.

January 10, 2008

2008-01-10T22:05:00.000-05:00

Well, CES is kind of boring today it seems. There was only a few pages on Engadget today and a lot of it was stupid stuff. Its upsetting that CES seemed to be much better last year. Mac World is also next week so that will mean a lot of news probably.
I didn’t play my games today though I did install some new stuff. Since I am back on Windows, I can get stuff like a Commodore 64 emulator. The only thing is that I can not get it working with my USB controller. I would like to use it since it would be easier to play then with the keyboard. If worse comes to worse, I can remap the keys.
I am much happier to be back on Windows sadly. I hate to say it but Linux is just horrible for me! I love the interface but the problems out weigh that for me it seems. Sorry Linux, but I have to say that you just are not ready for the average user.
I also installed Folding at Home on my Acer. Its not going to be fast but I would rather be able to do even a little good work then none at all. I would LOVE to install it on my PS3., but I don’t like using the PS3 like that. It would be on too much for me and my house is dusty.
Join my Folding team: 103239
Supper tonight was chilly. My dad makes it with kidney beans, hamburger, and some diced tomatoes. Its not a hot chilly but its really good with some Italian bread dipped into it. I also like the fact that its more beans then meat.